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Bamstm iJ^emxmal: 



IPSWICH, MASS., SEPTEMBER 20, 1882, 




TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF 
MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL DENISON. 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



Bsmstm 'Mmmvwl: 



IPSWICH, MASS., SEPTEMBER 20, 1882, 



TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF 
MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL DENISON. 




BIOGRAPICAL SKETCH, BY PROF. D. D. SLADE 

HISTORICAL MvETCH, BY AUGUSTINK CALDWELL 




Printed by the Request of 
'I' he Denison Memorial Committee. 






. Fu 



CONTENTS 



1. The Call Page 5 

2. Denison Memorial, by C. A. Sayward, Esq. 6 

3. Order of Exercises. 7 
4 Opening Remarks. Rev. T. F. Waters 7 

5. Biographical Sketch, Prof- D. D. Slade. 8 

6. Historical Sketch, A. Caldwell 33 

7. Genealogical, 47 
K. Denison Subscribers, 164«, 47 
9. Denison Inscription*. 49 

10. Records. 52 



Bam80.ii- iBawmual 



From the Ipswich Chronicle, July 22, 1882. 
MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL DENISON. 

Mr. Editor: The twentieth of September next will be the Two 
Hundredth Anniversary of the Death of Major-General Daniel 
Denison, who was not only a very, prominent and influential man in 
the early history of our town, but a very able and efficient man in the 
Colony; serving it in various capacities from 1634 tolG82, the year 
of his death. That he was highly appreciated by his townsmen, our 
records furnish abundant evidence. No other man who has lived in 
Ipswich was ever so highly honored as was General Denison by the 
efforts which were made by his townsmen to retain him among them 
as their military leader. Upon him they relied for safety from 
Indian attacks, and while he remained among them they felt secure. 
Indeed, the entire Colony of Massachusetts seemed to have placed 
the utmost confidence in his military skill and judgment; and no 
where do we find such confidence was misplaced. 

Such a man settled in our town, lived and died among our ancestors 
and his last resting place is in our midst. It seems appropriate that 
we should in sonic way recognize the work, worth, and utility of such 
a man, and keep his memory fresh among us. 

At the suggestion and request of several gentlemen, I invite all who 
would be interested in commemoia'.ing the Two Hundredth Anni- 
versary of his death, to meet at tin; Seminary on Friday evening, 
July 28, 1882, at eight o'clock, to make arrangements therefor. 

CHARLES A. SAYWARD. 

At a meeting held in the Seminary, July 28, to consider the 
observance of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Death of 
Major-General Daniel Denison, the following gentlemen were chosen 
to make the necessary and appropriate arrangements: 

CHARLES A. SAYWARD, I'SQ., 
MR. .JOHN HEARD, 
REV. T. FRANK WATERS, 
Y0R1CK G. KURD, M. D. 
CHARLES PALMER. M. I). 



6 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

From the Ipswich Chronicle, September 16, 18*2. 
THE DENISON MEMORIAL. 

CHARLES A. SAYWAKD, ESQ. 

A very interesting service wiil be held at the Town Hall on 
Wednesday evening of nex'. week commemorative of Major-General 
Daniel Denison. who was one of the early pioneers of the Town. He 
was the son of William Denison, of Roxburv, and was born probably 
in England about 1612. He was admitted a freeman in Boston April 
1, 1684, and appears to have come to Ipswich soon after; for in 1635 
the town granted him "an house lot near the mill, containing about 
two acres, which he hath paled in and built an house upon." The 
lot comprised part of the land between Market, Union and Winter 
streets. He was a military man, and had undoubtedly served in the 
army before he came to this country. The people of the town soon 
became aware of the value of his experience and knowledge of military 
affairs, and took great pains to retain him among them, for in 16-18, 
the residents of Ipswich agreed to give him £24 7s per year so long 
as he would remain their leader. This sum was raised by subscription, 
and the list was recorded upon the town books. One hundred aud 
fifty-rive persons subscribed for that purpose. 

He also became very prominent in Colonial affairs. He was Major 
General for eleven years ; and also served on several important 
commissions. In 1658 he had a grant of "one-quarter of Block 
Island for his great pains in revising, correcting and transcribing the 
Colonial Laws. 

He died September 20, 1682, and was buried in the High street 
burying ground, where his ashes now repose 

It is creditable to our town that we have among us those who are 
ready to revive and keep fresh the memory of those who labored, 
suffered and endured in laying the foundation upon which their 
descendants have built so well. The subject will take us back into 
the early history of the town, and bring vividly to mind the early 
struggles and trials of those who first broke the wilderness and 
commenced the settlement of Ipswich. 

We hope our citizens will attend the Memorial ; and that it may 
create an interest in our local history, and stir our -people to undertake 
the celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the 
Incorporation of the Town. Fifty years ago, when Rufus Choate 
was in his prime, the town observed the Two Hundredth Anniversary, 
and Mr. Choate delivered the Oration. The present generation 
ought to be able to do as well, and keep the story of the fathers fresh. 



DENISON MEMORIAL. IPSWICH, MASS. 

ORDER OF EXERCISES 

COMMEMORTIVE OF 

Major- General Daniel Denison, 

On the Two Hundredth Anniversary of his Death, 

AT THE TOWN HALL, IPSWICH, MASS., 

WEDNESDAY EVE NINCi, SEPTEMBER 20, 1882. 

1. Introductory Address. — Rev. T. Frank Waters. 

2. Prayer. — Rev. Charles N. Smith. 

'■). Singing. — k ' Majesty.''' 

1. Biographical Sketch of Gen. Denison Prof. Daniel Denison Slade, 

Harvard University. 
• r >. Singing. — " York." The Hymn was "lined off," by the Rev. E. 

B. Palmer. 

G. Address. — " Ipswich, 1633-1G82." Augustine Caldwell. 

7. Singing. — "America." 



OPENING REMARKS OF THE ACTING CHAIRMAN. 

REV. T. FRANK WATERS, ' 

Ladies and Gentlemen : In the absence of the Chairman, Charles 
A. Say ward, Esq., who is unavoidably detained at Worcester, it 
devolves upon me to stand in his place before you, to-night. 

1 regret that we are thus deprived both of his presence, and the 
opening address, which he had prepared, and which would have 
added much to the interest of the occasion. 

Though I am wholly unprepared to address you, you will pardon 
me, I am sure, for presuming to express my gratification that we have 
met for so. excellent a purpose. It is wise for us to pause now and 
then in this busy age, and look back into the past, to see what lessons 
we may learn from the men and things of the olden time. It is 
specially fitting, that on the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the death 
of Gen. Daniel Denison. a townsman, who as soldier and statesman, 
was a tower of strength to the infant colony, we should assemble to 
study his character, to commemorate his virtues and his notable deeds, 
and to render him the honor that is his due. It is our privilege to 
have with us as the orators of the occasion, two, who are well fitted 
to tell us the story of the man and of his time : and I take great 
pleasure in yielding the floor at once. 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 



Biographical Sketch of Major General Daniel Denison, 

r.Y PROF. DANIEL DENISON ' SLADE, OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

Two hundred years have passed since the death of the distinguished 
man whose memory we this evening commemorate. Two hundred 
years! What a comparatively small fragment of time, and yet what 
mighty changes have occured upon these shores within this period. 

For the first half century of the history of the Colony of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, we find tlje name of Daniel Denison standing 
conspicuous among the leading events of the time ; and although 
unfortunately for us, the records of his life are few and scattered, yet 
we have sufficient data by which to fill out a portraiture, which should 
be interesting not only to these his fellow townsmen, but to his 
countrymen generally. 

The ancestry of Gen. Denison was evidently of Norman extraction. 
There is no certainty as to the exact period at which the family 
emigrated to this country, nor do we know from what county in 
England it came. There is good authority to suppose that the father, 
William Denison, with his wife Margaret, and their three sons, 
Daniel, Edward and George, came with the apostle Eliot, in 1631. 
He settled in Roxbur}', and took the oath of freeman in 1632. In 
the following year he whs appointed Constable; and Deputy in 1634, 
in which latter capacity he was called upon to serve on important 
committees. In 1637, together with his son Edward, he was disarmed 
for taking part in the antinomian controversy. That he was a man 
of substance, and that he was an ardent friend of education and 
religion, the records of the town and church give evidence. He died 
January 25, 1653 Of the mother, we have only the record of her 
joining the church under Eliot, in 1632, and of tier death, February 
three, 1645. 

Daniel Denison, the subject of to day's consideration, was the eldest 
son ; and was born in England in 1612, being about nineteen years of 
age on his arrival in the colony. He passed the first year in Roxbury, 
with his parents, removing the following year to (Newtown) Cam- 
bridge, 1632, his name being on the list of the first settlers and 
church members. He was there married to Patience, the daughter of 
Gov. Thomas Dudley, who was then also a resident of this place. 
Of the exact date of their marriage, no record is now known to exist. 
He took the oath of freeman in 1634, and in this vear, the Genera! 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, \H*s. 9 

Court appoint him upon a committee to "sett out the bounds of all 
towns not yet sett out ; and to settle all differences between any 
towns," rewarding him for this and other services by a grant of two 
hundred acres, "all lyeing and being about the falls, easterly side of 
Charles River." His connection with Newtown was however of short 
duration ; for he removed to Ipswich, where, in 1635, "a house lot 
of about two acres which he hath paled in and builc an house upon." 
together with other land was assigned to him. Why he should have 
quitted Cambridge so suddenly after having joined the church and 
interested himself in the town affairs can only be conjectured. It is 
probable that circumstances induced him to follow his father-in-law, 
Gov. Dudley, wbo had taken up his abode in Ipswich. A.nd now for 
the remainder of his days, Daniel Denison is intimately associated 
with the history of this ancient town, which he honored by a career of 
public usefulness which falls to tlie lot of few men. 

Taking up the records of his life in chronological order, we find 
that in 1635 he was chosen Deputy ; serving in this capacity for three 
consecutive years, and again in 1640, 44, 48, 49, 51 and 52. In 
1637 he was a member of the memorable court which judged Mrs. 
Hutchinson and her sympathizers, and upon which subject it may not 
be uninteresting to dwell briefly in this connection. The antinomian 
controversy may be classified among the list of heresies, which, as a 
recent distinguished historian [Rev George E. Ellis,] remarks, "the 
worst thing about them is their names with the ill associations which 
they have acquired." The antimouiuus believed that those who felt 
spiritually that they were under "a covenant of faith," need not 
concern themselves about "the covenant of works." In other words, 
that the Gospel had abolished the Law, and that good works are not 
necessary as duties of Christianity. The word antinomian signifies 
a denial of the obligation of the moral law, under the christian 
dispensation. This "heresy," had its origin in Germany, and was 
there associated with much that was gross and licentious. No such 
evil however, was connected with the party in New England. The 
introducer and leader of antinomianism among the colonists, was Mrs. 
Anne Hutchinson, who was the daughter of an English clergyman, 
and whose mother was a relative of the celebrated poet, John Dryden. 
Being interested in the preaching of John Cotton, and of her relative, 
John Wheelwright, and being desirous of enjoying the ministry of 
Cotton, she came to Boston in 1634 ; and with her husband lived on 
the corner of the present Washington and School streets. She soon 
made herself kaown by her friendly services to the sick, especially to 
those of her own sex. Being a woman of superior intelligence, - k of 
nimble wit," and gifted in powers of argumentation, she drew about 



10 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

her many listeners, who came to hear her discuss the sermons of those 
ministers who differed from her views, and who preached in her 
judgment "a covenant of works." Many of the principle people of 
Boston sympatized with her. These discussions led to the dissemin- 
ation of jealousy, discord and bitterness of spirit, not only among 
those immediately engaged in the controversy, but among the entire 
people, a great portion of whom were ignorant of the cause or sig- 
nificance of the contest in which they were engaged, and who had 
been excited thereto through the heat of strife. 

" The dispute," says Bancroft, "infused its spirit into everything ; 
it interfered with the levy of troops for the Pequot war ; it influenced 
the respect shown to the .magistrates ; the distribution of town lots; 
the assessment of taxes ; and at last the continued existence of the 
two opposing parties was considered inconsistent with the public 
peace " The most serious charge brought against Mrs. Hutchinson 
was that she "'vented her revelations ;" or in other words, she 
prophesied judgment and disaster to come upon the colony as revealed 
1o her by special divine communications. Being brought before the 
General Court, the following sentence was passed upon her : that 
"being convented for traducing the ministers and their ministry in 
this countrv, she declared voluntarily her revelations for her ground, 
and that she should be delivered, and the Court ruined with their 
posterity, and thereupon was banished." Many inhabitants in sym- 
pathy with her were by order of the Court disarmed ; among whom 
were, as we have already seen, William Denison, the father, and his 
son George. The reason given by the Court for this indignity, which 
by the way. was a very serious matter, although quietly effected, was 
"as there is just cause of suspicion that they as others in Germany in 
former times, may upon some revelation, make some sudden irruption 
upon those that differ from them in judgment." The order of 
disarming extended to "guns, pistols, swords, powder, shot and 
match ;" and "that none of those disarmed should buy or borrow anv 
guns, swords, pistols, powder, shot or match, otherwise they would 
be subjected to the same penalty." Thus ended this unhappy episode 
in the early life of the colony ; while the fate of its chief actor was 
tragical in the extreme, being massacred with her family by the 
indians, in the Dutch territory, to which she had moved from Rhode 
Island, after the death of her husband in 1642. 

What special views were held by Daniel Denison in this controversy, 
we have no means of ascertaining. We can hardly suppose him to 
have been a sympathiser with Mrs. Hutchinson. 

In 1636, he was made town clerk of Ipswich, and in the same year 
was chosen " Captaine," as well as Assistant in the quarterly court 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 1 I 

held in Ipswich. In 1638, Capt. Denison with others was allowed 
upon petition "to begin a plantation at Merrimack," (Salisbury.) 
In 1641, he was one of a committee for furthering the trade in Ipswich. 
They were to ' v set up buoys, beacons, provide salt, cotton, sowing- 
hempseed, llax-seed and card-wire." In 1643, the town granted him 
200 acres of land, for bis "better encouragement to settle among us." 

At about this period commences that dependence which was placed 
by the colonisls upon Denison as a military leader, which seems never 
to have been afterwards shaken. Owing to the great alarm which 
spread throughout the plantations from a report that a general con- 
spiracy existed among the native tribes, at a session of the General 
Court in May 1643. it was ordered that there should be a general 
training of troops, and provision of arms, and that Capt. Denison 
with five others should put the country into a posture of war, and to 
see to fortifications. Capt. Denison, together with several gentlemen 
of Ipswich. Rowley, and the adjoining towns, "out of the care for the 
safety of the public weal, by the advancement of the military art and 
exercise of arms," were, upon their petition, incorporated as a miltary 
company, in May, 1615. The town also agrees to pay him t'24 Is 
annually, to be their military leader ; and at this time he was chosen 
Sergeant Major, an office which he held until his election as Major 
General. Johnson in his Wonder- Working Providence, thus speaks 
of his abilities as a commander: "The two counties of Essex and 
Norfolk, are for the present joyne<l in one regiment. Their first 
Major who now commandeth this regiment is the proper and valiant 
Major Daniel Denison ; a good souldier, and of a quick capacity, not 
inferior to any other of these chief officers ; his own company are well 
instructed in feats anil warlike activity." 

With military duties Major Denison is railed upon to take his part 
in the engrossing political events of tbe day. The relations of Boston 
and Massachusetts to the quarrels of two French Governors of 
Acadia, LaTour and D'Aubray, growing out of their mutual jealousies 
and back-bitings, form a curious narrative in tbe early times of the 
colonies. The Chevalier Rasilli was appointed by the King of France 
to the the chief command in Acadia. He designated La Tour as 
J.ientenant for t lie portion east of the St. Croix, and D'Aubray for the 
western portions, as far as the French claims extended. D'Aubray 
was a Catholic, while La Tour pretended to be a Huguenot. Probably 
it was this last which determined the sympathies of the colonial 
authorities in his behalf. The first appearance of these rivals in our 
history was in the autumn of 1633, when news came of the taking of 
Machias by the French. La Tour had taken possession of this trading 
place, occupied by Plymouth men, two of whom were killed and three 



12 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

carried away. In 1635, D'Aulnay made a similar seizure of a trading 
house at Penobscot The Plymouth people were greatly exasperated 
at these acts, and attempts were made with ihe assistance of the 
Massachusetts Colony, to supplant the French by sending an expedi- 
tion against them ; but from various causes, this failed. In 1641, 
La Tour sent an embassy to make a treaty of commerce with the 
Massachusetts Colony. This it was willing to do, but it was not 
willing to assist him in his contentions against D'Aulnay. In the 
following year, another request came for aid against his rival ; and in 
1643, La Tour came himself to Boston, was well received, and feted 
by the authorities, who did not feel at liberty to give him direct 
assistance, but granted him permission to hire any vessels in the 
harbor. He accordingly secured four ships and a pinnace, with the 
necessary number of men, and with this force some damage was done 
to his rival, principally by the capture of his vessel loaded with 
valuable moose and beaver skins. La Tour came again to Boston in 
the following year to obtain assistance, but was not successful. He 
however did succeed in causing a letter to be addressed to D'Aulnay 
by the Colonial authorities, demanding satisfaction for several griev- 
ances committed by him. Shortly after, D'Aulnay sent an embassy 
to the Mass. Governor, complaining of the assistance given to La 
Tour, in the previous year. It was conclusively proved, however, 
that no commissions had been granted and no permission to use 
hostility. With this he was apparently satisfied. Articles of agree- 
ment were drawn up, to keep the peace, with certain trading rights, 
to be confirmed by the Commissioners of the United Colonies. These 
articles, when confirmed, were sent to D'Aulnay, who refused to sign 
them until all differences were settled. This circumstance caused an 
animated discussion in the General Court, and it was finally decided 
to send Major Daniel Denison with Deputy Governor Dudley and Mr. 
Hawthorne, to D'Aulnay, with full powers to treat. They were, 
however, spared this trouble, for D'Aulnay hearing of their appoint- 
ment, sent three of his principle men to Boston to settle all matters of 
difference. " In the end, they came to this conclusion," says Win- 
throp, •'we accepted their commissioners' answer in satisfaction of 
those things we had charged upon Mons. D'Aulnay, and they accepted 
our answer for clearing our government of what he had charged upon 
us."' It was also agreed that a small compensation should be sent as 
an act of courtesy ; and thereupon k 'a very fair new Sedan, worth 
forty or fifty pounds where it was made, but of no use to us, ' which 
had been taken in the West Indies, by Capt. Cromwell in one of his 
prizes, and given to the Governor, was sent to D'Aulnay. 

The sequel to this history is somewhat curious : D'Aulnay waged 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 15 

war against his opponent, captured his fort together with his wife and 
property, the lady dying three weeks afterwards. Through friends in 
Boston, LaTour was furnished with trading commodities to the value 
of about ^100, and sailed on a voyage to the Eastward. Reaching 
Cape Sable, through conspiracy with the Captain, he seized the 
vessel and put the Boston men on shore. Winthrop thus notes in 
his History: " Whereby it appeared, (as the Scripture saith,) that 
there is no confidence in an unfaithful or carnal man. Though tied 
with many strong bonds of courtesy, &c, he turned pirate." 

D'Aulnay died in 1650-1, and in the following year his widow 
married La Tour, and their names are seen no more in Colonial 
Records. 

In the spring of 1647, Major Denison was appointed one of the 
Justices of the Inferior Court sitting at Ipswich, and was also 
returned as Deputy to the General Court from Jpswich. The honor 
of the Speakership was conferred upon him during the two sessions of 
1649, and also again in the years 1651, '52. 

It is well known to the students of our Colonial history, that 
Cromwell, after having subdued Ireland, looked about for some 
means of keeping it in subjection, and for this purpose entertained 
the idea of transferring some of the hardy settlers of New England to 
that country. « He knew them," says Palfrey, "for a set°of men 
combining the best qualities of the English character. Their courage 
had been proved by strict tests. Their religious zeal was a light fit 
to be set upon a hill. They had shown themselves able to organize 
and to govern." Although this plan of Cromwell made no general 
impression in the Colony, that it was seriousiy considered by some of 
the influential men, may be inferred from a letter under date of 
December 81, 1650, from Daniel Denison and four others, to the 
Protector, asking for information and giving their terms upon which 
a possible removal might be effected. Some of these were, that they 
should have liberty of religion as here in New England, that grants 
of land should be made for the advance of learning, that they should 
have choice of a military governor, that they should occupy a healthy 
portion of the country, be free from public charge, and 'that no irish 
may inhabit among us but such as we shall like of." 

Mindful of the great importance of education and of the interests 
of his town, Major Denison was much engaged in tlie establishment 
of the Grammar School iu Ipswich, and to the maintenance of which 



* Boston and Neighboring Jurisdictions, by C. C. Smith. Mem 
Hist. Boston. 



14 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

he afterwards gave freely. He was made one of the Feoffees in 1651. 

To the office of Major General he was appointed in 1653, and held 
it at different times until 1680. In the same year he was also chosen 
an Assistant, and thenceforwards to his decease. In the autumn he 
was elected Secretary of the Colony. Having been appointed a few 
years previously upon a committee with the Governor and two others, 
" for the purpose of ending differences, settling trade, &c, with the 
Dutch," the experience thus required, induced the General Court to 
again honor Denison by appointing him one of a committee to join 
with the Commissioners of the United Colonies, "to draw up the case 
respecting the Dutch and Indians." Not being able to come to an 
agreement, Mr. Theophilus Eaton on the part of the Commissioners, 
and Major-General Denison on the part of the General Court, were 
instructed, each of them, to prepare a short draught to be presented 
to the Court and Elders, While Eaton was "clamorous for war," 
Denison did not advocate extreme measures, and it was undoubtedly 
greatly through his influence, that the House of Deputies communica- 
ted to the Commissioners their resolve, viz , " That according to their 
best apprehension in the case, they doe not understand wee are caled 
to make a present wan* with the Dutch." 

lu May, 1658, the following order was passed by the General 
Court : " That Major Gen'l Daniel Denison diligently peruse, examine 
and weigh every law, and compare them with others of like nature ; 
such as are plain & good, free from any just exception, to stand with- 
out any animadversion as approved. Such as are repealed, or fit to be 
repealed, to be so marked and the reasons given ; such as are obscure, 
contradictory or seeming so, to be rectified and the emendations 
prepared. When there is two or more laws about one and the same 
thing, to prepare a draught of one law that may comprehend the 
same ; to make a plain & easy table, and to prepare what else may 
present, in the perusing of them, to be necessary and useful, and 
make return at the next session of this court." The General entered 
upon this work with zest and diligence, for in a few months the 
volume was produced, which was at once printed. Two copies of this 
volume are still preserved. As compensation "for his great paines in 
transcribing the lawes," the Court granted him a quarter part of 
Block Island. This entire island was sold in 1660, two years after, 
for the sum of £400. 

In June, 1664, he was appointed together with Mr. Bradstreet and 
Mr. Symonds, to consider the recent dissensions in the N. E. Confed- 
eracy ; which had sprung from the course pursued by Massachusetts, 
and by which she had been accused, by the other Colonies, of break- 
ing the covenant. This " Narrative," as it was termed, was to be 
sent to Cromwell. 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 15 

In 1665, the county of Essex place him upon a committee "for the 
procuring of suitable supplies," and "to consider of some such way as 
whereby both merchandizing may be encouraged and the hands also of 
the husbandman may not wax weary in his employment." 

Massachusetts considering that she had a prior right to certain 
territory on the north-east, claimed by representatives of Gorges, 
the Court at its session in October, 1657, appointed Gen. Denison, 
Mr. Bradstreet and Mr. Hathorne as Commissioners to proceed to 
Kittery and to confer with the inhabitants who were disatisfied with 
the existing state of affairs under which they lived. After much 
consideration of the subject and much vexatious delay, Kittery 
submitted to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. York and other 
places also pursued the same course. 

We are all familiar with the unhappy contest which existed between 
our Puritan fathers and the Quakers. Into a consideration of this it 
would not be proper for us to enter at this time ; but the following 
letter written by Denison as one of the Confederate Commissioners, 
bears full evidence of his views on this subject. He writes to the 
Governor of Rhode Island : " We therefore make it our request that 
you, as the rest of the Colonies, take such order herein, that } 7 our 
neighbours may be freed from that danger ; that you remove those 
Quakers that have been received, and for the future prohibit their 
coming amongst you. We further declare that we apprehend that it 
will be our duty seriously to consider what further provision God may 
call us to make to prevent the aforesaid mischief." 

In 1653, instructions had been given to Capt. George Denison, the 
brother of our subject, by the Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
to go to iSinigret, the leading chief of the Narragansetts, and to warn 
him to abstain from hostilities against Uncas, and against one 
another. Soon afterwards the Confederate Commissioners declared 
war against the Narragansetts, from all which the Massachusetts 
Commissioners, Denison and Bradstreet, dissented. Denison had 
even declined the command of an expedition against the Indians, 
which was sent under Major Willard. The Massachusetts Commis- 
sioners say : il There having been many messengers to this purpose 
formerly sent from the commissioners to the Indian Sachems, but 
seldom observed by them, which now to renew again. . .can have in 
reason no other attendance in conclusion than to render us low and 
contemptible in the eyes of the Indians, or engage us to vindicate our 
honour in a dangerous and unnecessary war upon Indian quarrels, the 
grounds whereof we can hardly ever satisfactorily understand." 

In 1660, Gen. Denison joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
Company, and the same year was elected Commander, which was the 



16 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

first undoubted instance of such honor being conferred upon any 
individual. 

Under date of May 3, 1G65, we find almost the only allusion to the 
private history of Gen. Denison. This is the bare statement of the 
loss of his dwelling house by fire, and in the same connection, the 
following : " A woman of Ipswich is tried for burning Gen'l Denison's 
house ; not found guilty ; fined as a thief, and to be whipped for 
Lyeing." Bradstreet, in his journal, says: "Mr. Denison's house 
was burnt, by which fire he suffered great losse, few of ye things 
being saved." 

King Charles II, having made demands upon Massachusetts, one of 
which was, "that four or five influential persons, to be chosen by the 
Governor and Council, should be sent to England forthwith, to 
attend upon his Majesty," the General Court at its session, Sept. It, 
1G60, appointed a committee to draw up a letter, giving their reasons 
for not submitting to the mandates of the Royal Commissioners sent 
over the year previous, and also in a reply to a proposal for an 
invasion of New France. In the debate to which this letter gave rise, 
Gen. Denison and Mr. Bradstreet were much more compliant than 
other magistrates, being perhaps influenced somewhat by the petitions 
which had come in from several towns, praying for submission to the 
King's demands. 

tk Major Gen. Denison declared his dissent from the letter to be 
sent to Secretary Morrice as not being proportionate to the end 
desired, and he hopes intended, and desired it might be entered, viz., 
due satisfaction to his Majesty and the preservation of the peace and 
liberty of this colony.'*. . ."The King's commands pass anywhere," 
says Denison. " No doubt but you mav have a trial at law when you 
come in England if you desire it, and you may insist upon it and 
claim it. Prerogative is as necessary as law and is for the good of 
the whole, that there be always power in being to act, and where there 
is a right of power it will be abused so long as 'tis in the hands of 
weak men, and the less pious the more apt to miscarry; but right 
may not be denied because it may be* abused. If we shall refuse to 
answer here to commissioners and in England also, what will the 
King say? Is it not plain that jurisdiction is denied to his Majesty? 
Though no appeal lies to his Majesty so to stop justice but it may 
proceed to the uttermost, yet the King may accept any complaint and 
require and answer thereto, so that our absolute power to determine 
must not abate the King's prerogative." 

The capture of New York by the Dutch, in 1673, created an alarm 
among the English Colonies, lest their dominions might also be 
invaded. Accordingly the federal commissioners met at Hartford. 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 17 

and recommended to tho General Court of each of the Colonies to 
provide means of defence. The Governor and Council of Massachu- 
setts at a meeting, Aug. 4, 1673, ordered— "that for defence against 
the Dutch in case of their appearance before the harbour, endeavors 
be used to set the three principle ports in order." 

" 1. That the honoured Governor and Major-general shall and 
hereby is impowered in case of any notice and appearance or assault 
of the enemy to command such company of foot or horse as belong to 
the regiments of Suffolk or Middlesex, to come into the relief of the 
towns of Boston or Charlestown." 

"6. That the Major of Essex Regiment, Daniel Denison, Esq., 
shall and is hereby impowered and required to send relief into Salem 
and Marblehead." 

In the Massachusetts archives we find in good preservation the 
following letter addressed to Major Denison by William Hathorne and 
his answer thereto. Major Denison was at a later date made Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the forces raised in Massachusetts ; also one of the 
Massachusetts commissioners to Connecticut. 

Sir, — According to yr order wee are all hands upon fortification at 
Salem, but have for our great artillery, of country powder, or shott, 
none att all and beside wee intend to inlarge our ffort and augment 
our ports, wee do therefore address ourselves to you knowing none so 
sencable of our needes, wee doo much want five great guns, as 
Culverin, or demi Culverin, or as large as may here be golt, with 
powder and shott proportionable, pray Sir be helpful what you may 
and especially to me who cannot at present run away but subscribe 
hiraselfe with the rest of the militia. We are yr Servants. 

Daced : 6: 6: mo 1673. Wit. Hathorne, Sen'r. 

Sir, — Upon a little conference with the officers at Salem, though I 
find them of divided apprehensions (which is and will be our misery) 
they seem resolved to make their fort defencable immediately and doe 
affirm the guns therein will command the roade. If so, t'were pitty 
they should want powder and guns, I presume your charity will as 
readily assist them with ye country stock as Charlestowne otherwise 
you know w'.iat I sayd, [ doubt not of your readiness. I beseech you 
further their despatch, and if we want not materials, 1 shal not be out 
of hope' that a good account will be rendered of our trust, however let 
nothing be wanting and the will of the Lord be done. 

Yr Humble Servant, Daniel Denison. 

In the disastrous war with the Indians which broke upon the 
Colonies in 1675, known as King Philip's war, Gen. Denison, as 



18 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

might be supposed from his position, took an active part. Fortunately 
there are several letters extant relating to this latter portion of his 
life. These for the most part are well preserved, and the hand- 
writing, which is excellent, is as distinct as ever, although more than 
two centuries have fled since these letters were written. He was 
appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Massachusetts forces, June, 
1675, as will be seen by the instructions given him by the Governor 
and Council ; but as he was prevented by sickness from taking the 
field, Major Thomas Lavage was substituted. 

The Governor and Magistrates assembled in Counsell at Boston in 

the Massachusetts Colony. 
To Major Generall Daniel Denison — 

Whereas, you are nominated and chosen Generall of all the forces 
raised by us for the present expedition against the Indians that have 
made an inroad upon our neighbours and confederates ot Plymouth 
Colony. You are hereby authorized and impowered to take the 
conduct of the said forces, to dispose of them and make provision for 
them of all manner of necessarys so as may have the best tendency 
for the service they are to attend, and all constables and other officers 
of this commonwealth are hereby enjoyned to be assistants to you and 
to execute your commands and warrants for the effecting thereof. 
You are to kill burn and destroy the enemy unless they shall yield 
themselves your prisoners, and to rule and govern your officers and 
soldiers under your command, according to our military laws, and if 
necessity of any imergency that may happen will permit, you shall 
observe the instructions herewith given you, and such further orders 
as from time to time you shall receive from the Counsell or Generall 
court, and in so doing this shall be your warrant. 

Given in Boston. June 26, 1675. 

Instructions for Daniel Denison, Esq., Commander-in-chief of the 
forces raised or to be raised for the assistance of our neighbours 
and friends of Plymouth Colony : 
In confidence of your wisdom, prudence and faithfulness in this 
trust committed to you for the honour of God, the good of his people 
and the sincerity of the interest of our Lord Jesus Christ in his 
churches, expecting and praying that you may be blessed in a dayly 
dependence upon him for all that supply of grace that may be requisite 
for your carrying an end therein, we must leave much to his direction 
and guidance of you upon the place as occasion may occur from time 
to time, yet would commend ^unto you these instructions following, 
which we expect and require that you do attend. 

You are with all expedition to march away with those soldiers you 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. L9 

have, after those forces marched before, over whom you have the 
command by commission, unto whom you are to declare the same, so 
that they may know you to be their commander in chief and you are 
to require them to obey you in attending the service. You are to see 
that the commanders and soldiers are kept in good order and 
discipline according to the rules military, and that all profanity and 
disorder be avoyded in the camp as much as in you lies»and upon the 
breaking forth of any you are to punish without partiality. 

You are to see that the publick worship of God by dayly prayer and 
invocation upon his name, and that preaching as you have opportunity 
be attended, for the instruction of the soldiers in the knowledge and 
fear of the Lord and that the Sabbath be not profaned but that as 
much as in you lyes and the emergency of the service will admit you 
see that the same be duly sanctitled and the minister duly respected. 

You are by all means possible to endeavour the strengthening and 
incouraging or our friends and neighbours of Plymouth by keeping 
meet correspondency with their Commander and Commissioners, and 
by all means to weaken, destroy and subdue the enemy, and in case 
of your coming to any capitulation with the enemy, you are to 
endeavour as much as may be to the just satisfaction of our neigh- 
bours of Plymouth. 

You are by all possible means to putt the enemy out of his 
skulkings (whereby he picks off the English) bj' pressing upon them 
with resolution the best you may and so force them to engagement, or 
leaving their station, — above all endeavour the taking or destroying 
the head of them, Phillip and his chief counsellors, that hath been the 
contriver and carrier and end of this treacherous and barbarous 
insurrection. 

You are to consult your comanders and to take in Mr Dudley our 
minister to consult in matters you may think wise to advise with him 
in, as to^the carrying an end of this design. 

You are to order your commissarys for provisions and stores to be 
carefull that there may not be any embezzlement made therein and to 
order that your comanders be very careful that the soldiers be 
careful of their arms and that they may have all meet provision for 
their strengthening in the service as much as in you lyes. 

You are from time to time to give us intelligence of your 
proceedings and how the Lord shall please to deal with you in this 
expedition. 

Dated in Boston 28th June, 1C>~.~>. 

Of Capt. Hinchman, to whom the first of the two following letters 
is addressed, we have no information. Major Waldron was from 



20 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

Dover, and was chosen a Deputy in 1654, and for several years after. 
He was also appointed Speaker at different times. He had been a 
Captain in the militia, and in 1G74 was appointed Sergeant-Major of 
Yorkshire. He was not wanting in executive ability. 

To Capt. Daniel Hinchman, — 

You are with all convenient speed to return to your company and 
quarters about Pocasset to fetch of your men and provisions and 
ammunition there or thereabouts, and what you for want of carriage 
cannot bring off with you, you are to lay it up safely in some 
convenient place, and Mr. Brian Pendleton is thought to be most 
suitable, [torn] understand some is already ... all the particulars. . . 
you are to take receits . . . you may sell taking present pay or good 
bills of which you ... give an account to Capt. Davis, &c. Com- 
mission'rs for provision for the army. 

At your first arrivall at Pocasset or sooner before you draw off, 
you shall give notice to the chief commanders of Plymouth forces that 
you are commanded off, that so he or they take care for the security 
of the place. But if the said Commander in Chief shall urge or desire 
your stay upon such grounds as in your understandi g are of weight ; 
you shall signify the same to the Governor and councill and expect 
further order before you move. But in case the said Plymouth 
commander shall not upon such reasons as aforesaid oppose your 
returning, you shall with all expedition draw off 3 - our company and as 
abovesd, and march them to Boston and disband, unless the Governor 
and Councill give order for your further services. In your march by 
Mr. Woodcock's you shall command off those souldiers of ours, who 
have been ordered there for a guard. The like you are to do with 
those at Capt. Hudson's, unless you judge it unsafe, he being of our 
Colony whom we are to take care of. In your advance thither you 
are hereby authorized to press or require the constables respectedly to 
furnish you with horses and guides, as you shall have occasion, the 
like you shall do in your returne to accommodate yourself and com- 
pany with what you judge necessary. 

Given at Boston Aug 9,1675. Daniel Denison, Maj. Gen. 

For Major Rich'd Waldron — 

Having acquainted the Council with what I advised you on the 
fifteenth inst., I am commanded by them to order you forthwith with 
50 or 60 souldiers, under your owne or Mr. Plaisted's or some other 
sufficient Conduct you march to Pennicook supposed to be the great 
rendevous of the enemy, where you may expect to meet Capt. 
Mosely, who is ordered thither and have sufficient commission to 
pursue kill and destroy them, which you must also attend as your 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 2] 

work, unless such as shall willingly deliver up their armea and 
themselves or sufficient hostages to secure their peaceable behaviour. 
You had need take along with you a chirugeon and make all possible 
expedition. A great part of our forces are at present at Hadley. 
Boston, Aug. 17, 1675. Daniel Denison, Maj. Gen. 

By order of the Council 

The devastations committed by the Indians, and the alarm caused 
thereby had now spread on every side. No one could foretell where 
the enemy would next strike. Thoroughly acquainted with the 
country and unimpeded in their progress through it, they would fall 
upon some distant hamlet, destroy and disappear. In the words of 
Irving: " There were now and then indications or these impending 
ravages, that tilled the minds of the Colonists with awe and appre- 
hension. The report of a distant gun would perhaps be heard from 
the solitary woodland, where there was known to be no whiteman ! 
the cattle which had been wandering in the woods would sometimes 
return home wounded, or an Indian or two would be seen lurking 
about the skirts of the forests and suddenly disappearing ; as the 
lightning will sometimes be seen playing silently about the edge of 
the cloud that is brewing the tempest." 

Under circumstances like these, the following letters were written ; 
the first addressed to the Secretary of the Colony, the second from 
the General on his advance to Salisbury, and the third showing the 
difficulties attendant upon the impressment of men for an emergency : 

Mr. Secretary : — 

I received your intelligence, the substance whereof I had two hours 
before by way of Billerica and Andover, together with certaine 
intelligence, that the enemy is passed Merrimack, their tracks seen 
yesterdav at Wamesit and two of their scouts, this morning at 
Andover, who by 2 posts one in the night and againe this day about 2 
of the clock importuned for help, as doth Haveril and Major Pike 
from Norfolk. I am with great difficulty sending up 60 men this 
night under Capt. Appleton to Andover, who will also take this 
opportunity if not prevented, to attend the Council's order for survey 
of the towns of this county who are sufficiently alarmed. Did not I 
judge my presence here more necessary than anything I could 
contribute there, I would most willingly embrace the opportunity, 
were it but for ease. I suppose this will excuse me to the Council, 
whatever it will to yn people. I hope my Brother Bradstreet will 
publish my excuse, had he writ [ might have ordered some of his best 
things to have been brought of from Andover. I am in extremity 
of haste at sun-sett despatching the souldiers to the great dis- 



22 DENI90N MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

satisfaction ofthetowne. Let God arise and our enemies shal be 
scattered. Yr Humble Servant, Daniel D&nison. 

Ips. August 19, at six at night, 1675. 

IfCapt. Appleton return with good newes and it be necessary for 
me to come, if I understand it, I shal attend; tho our court should 
be next week. Pray my Brother Bradstreet to comend to ye Council 
that many of our towne souldiers that are now under Capt Cooke, 
intended for Capt. Sill to be a guard to my-selfe and the comissioners 
will be extremely wronged if they be kept out. Hoping they should 
have had favor of me for a speedy returne, some of their occasions 
and familyes will extreamely suffer, as Samuel Ingalls, a farmer with 
a great family, Mr. Thomas Wade and diverse others, indeed the 
most of Ipswich and one of Rowley, Lieutenant Michil. 

Much Hon'd Sir, — 

You are not ignorant of ray engagements to Major Pyke, that he 
assisting Major Waldron upon that streight at JS'eechiwannick, I 
would not faile him in case, wch you>ee by his letters he claims and 
for the performance thereof (according to my comission) I gaveorders 
in my Regiment for a force competent for what I intended, only 
proposing the design of visiting the enemy's head quarters, but not to 
be attempted without further order, but doe now see it, I feare not 
possible, the difficulty of getting men is beyond my former beliefe I 
am now advancing to Major Pyke to Salisbury hoping I shall have 50 
musqueteers to follow me. When I am there upon the place wee 
shall advise how to dispose of any or all of the men, and except there 
be extreme necessity I think shall be able to afford them no more than 
the comfort of our presence for a while. 

Our posts atTopsfield and Andover being affrighted with the sight 
(as they say) of Indians which I have not time to examine till my 
returne ; I think I had not troubled you with the last, but for one 
passage without which I remember, viz., that John Linds son of 
Waraiset was amongst those very lately that assaulted the English 
about Piscatay. It is hardly imaginable the pannick fear that is 
upon our upland plantations and scattered places, deserting their 
habitations, which upon my returne I hope to remedy. I am sorry to 
hear the newes from Hadley and Connecticut. The Almighty and 
Merciful God pitty and help us. In much haste I break of. 

Your humble Servt Daniel Denison. 

Ipswich, October 28, 1675. 

Sir,— In obedience to your late order for the impressing of 185 
souldiers, wee have listed the persons underwritten who are fitted with 
arms, ammunition and cloaths, as the order directs— only you may 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 23 

please to understand that some of the persons now returned hath 
withdrawn themselves. Although warning hath been left at the 
places of their abodes, and their parents required to be ready to goo 
in their stead if their sons should fail (we feared also lest the service 
should be neglected) other men warned to make up the number of 28, 
which is our towne's proportion if any of those now returned should 
fail. [Here follow the names of 28 men ] 

Those three last, very lusty young men. 

Under a safe press and not discharged but required to attend when 
called, have by the artifice of their parents, absconded for the present, 
though their parents hath beene required to bring them forth or be 
ready themselves to march. We have not 3 abler, lustive young 
fellows in our towne and few exceeding them in the country, nor may 
be better spared. I have not further to trouble you, but presenting 
my services to yourselves and the rest of the magistrates, rest 

Yr Humble servant Daniel Denison. 

Salem, Nov. 30, 1675. 

Instructions to Lieut. Thomas Fiske: 

Whereas you are appointed by the Governor and Council to have 
the conduct of sixty souldiers of Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk in this 
present expedition to Kinnebeck under the comand of Major Richard 
Waldron, commander-in-chief, you are hereby ordered and authorized 
to take under your care and comand, the sd company of souldiers, 
requiring them to obey you as their Lieutenant and comander whom 
you are to lead and conduct on this service of the country, to pursue, 
kill and destroy the enemy, or make them your prisoners. And the sd 
souldiers are hereby required to obey you as their comander and 
yourselfe to attend to all/orders and comands of your Comander-in- 
chief, and all further orders or instructions you shall from time to 
time receive from the general Court Council or other authority, and 
this shall be your warrant. Daniel Denison, Maj. Gen. 

Dat. Feb. 5, 1676. 

Feb. 25, 1676. Gen. Denison is ordered to Marlboro, to dispose 

of the forces which had been raised and collected there. The letter 

which follows relative to Capt. Brocklebank at Marlboro, who desires 

to be dismissed with his company, portrays one of the vexations to 

which every commander is liable in times of the greatest need. 

Sir,— Yesterday I received a letter from Capt. Brocklebank at 
Marlborough, signifying his desire of being dismissed with his com- 
pany ; the reasons he alledges are their necessities and wants, having 
beene in the country's service ever since the first of January at 



24 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

Narraganset, and within one weeke after their return were sent out 
again, having neither time nor mony (save a fortnights pay upon their 
march,) to recruite themselves, and he saith they do little service 
where they are ; and he understands the inhabitants are called off by 
the Council. I shall make bould to request the like labor in the 
behalfe of those (at least.) Some of those troopers and dragoons of 
Essex, that went out last, intended for Hadley, but by reason of the 
disaster at Groton diverted to Concord, &c, to beate of and prosecute 
the enemy in those parts, and I directed orders to Major Willard, 
that with those he first tooke up with him, and those then sent, 
together with Ihe garrisons of Marlborough, Lancaster and Chemsford 
(if need were) in all about 200 men he might not only defend the 
towns, but might prosecute the enemy to his quarters, being wth 2 
days march, but I heare of no such attempt, nor indeed of any 
considerable improvement of them that hath beene or is likely to be, 
and am therefore sollicitous for many of them, that out of a respect to 
myselfe went willingly, hoping of a speedy return to their families and 
occasions, some of them more than ordinary great and urgent. I 
intreate therefore they may be presently considered and eased to 
attend the seedtime, &c, and if there be necessity that others may 
be sent in their rooms, who may with far less detriment be spared. 
The stockade from Watertown to Wamesit might better be from 
Watertown to Sudbury river, 9 miles, taking in more country, and 
that river being as good a stop as the stockade ; the greatest objection 
is Merrimack river, though broad, yet I understand is fordeable in 20 
places between Wamesit and Haveril, and cannot be safe without 
guard, which must be kept upon it. For haste I jumble many thinos 
which be pleased to pardon. The Lord looke in mercy upon his poore 
distressed people, upon yourselfe in particular, so prays 

Your humble Servant Daniel Denison. 

The enclosed are certificates of delinquents in the last press in 
Norfolk and of the troopers that should have gone with Capt. Whipple 
to Hadley. 

Order for the Commissary to provide for the Garrison at Marlboro : 

Mr. Fairweather,— You are hereby ordered to provide a quantity of 
Porke, currants, rum, spice, shirts, drawers, wastecoats, shoes for 
the Garrison at Marlborough and deliver them to these bearers to be 
conveyed up thither. Daniel Denison, M. G. 

June 13, 76. 

Gen. Denison was not himself sent to the eastward until the autumn 
of this year, but as Commander-in-Chief had direction of all the 
forces operating in that region. 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 25 

To Edward Rawson, Secretary: 

SlR > — TJ ie inclosed gives you an account of the eastern parts which 
I thought necessary to despatch to you, that suitable orders and 
necessary provisions might be conveyed to them upon ye first account 
of ye disaster at Casco, and the desires of those of York communica- 
ted to me by Major Pike, [ have ordered him to send 20 or 30 
shoalers to York to comfort them. I can ad nothing to the intelligence 
nor contribute any advice. I suppose Major Waldron hatb fully 
informed you of the state of those parts. It cannot but be full of 
difficulties to deale with such a skulking enemy, especially in such a 
hideous country. The God that hath saved and delivered us from a 
more numerous enemy, will doubtless in his owne time perfect his 
worke begun and restore unto us our former peace. Your present 
advice and orders wherein I pray God to guide, is the earnest desire 
of" Yr Humble Servant Daniel Denison. 

Ips. Sept. 20, 1676, at <S at night. 

To Edward Rawson, Secretary : 

Sr —Yours of the 27th instant came to my hands about 10 at night, 
being then in bed and very ill ; yet notwithstanding, by breake of day 
I gott up, though then in a feaverish distemper, to impart the con- 
tents thereof to the Deputy and Major Hathorne ; but by reason of 
their distant lodgings could not understand their minds, till they 
judged it impossible for them to reach Boston till late at night: You 
may expect their answer from themselves. I would have also you to 
have come had they so concluded, though hopeless of reaching 
Boston this night, by reason of my present distemper. I had hoped 
that my former reasonable excuse might have satisfyed for my 
absence of Monday last. And though it be true Major Waldron 
spake much to me, and the deputy, (as men that apprehend them- 
selves in danger usually doe,) yet I did not upon all he sayd 
apprehend any necessity of my presence for his despatch. I perceive 
the sailor is ill resented and therefore as a punishment, a burden 
is imposed, which I cannot understande nor beare. I shall 
not willingly omit any thing that my place or duty obligeth me unto, 
and accordingly have, by order of the Council, raised and dispatched 
those forces under Capt Hathorne, with commission orders and 
instructions, which if it be the council's pleasure, I shall yet continue 
to doe to my best skil. But to provide and furnish them with 
provision and amunition which must be had from Boston, I think it 
needless for me to undertake, otherwise than by representing their 
wants to the Gover'r and Council, or at most giving orders to the 
Commissaries to dispatch them wth speed, which I suppose would be 



26 DKNISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH", MASS. 

more effectually done by an order from the authority upon the place. 

Further, I never understood or intended the forces now on foote 
further than Yorkshire, and did almost assure them (for their 
encouragement,) they should not be employed further east: if there- 
fore, anything be expected to be done at Kinnebec, Pemaquid, 
Monhegan, I dare not undertake it, but intreate the Council to take 
order therein, who understand the state of those paits and necessity 
of taking care thereof, wherein I am altogether a stranger and 
unacquainted — which places, as I intimated in my last, may best be 
secured by the persons that are concerned there — at least with the 
• helpe and assistance of some Suffolk men. I cannot judg more forces 
necessary for the defence and security of Yorkshire, than are there at 
present, if well improved. If more should be required, they will not 
at this time be easily raised here, it being now harvest, which calls 
for all hands. Any particular directions from the Council shall be 
attended, which I think under correction should be drawne up in an 
order and not crowded into a letter. The messenger's stay bids me 
(with my service to the Gover'r and Council,) conclude. 

Yr humble Servant, Faniel Denison. 

Ips. Sept. 28, at 9 Mor. 
It were vayne to tell you of the extraordinary disappointment would 

be should the court have adjourned. 

Letter about the Eastward : 

Honerd Sr. You will understand by this bearer the state of the 
Eastern parts and our forces there. It seems when this post came 
from there, Capt. Hathorne had not received my order, but by Major 
Waldron, for their march up to the enemies head quarters, which 1 
suppose they will readily attend, if furnished with victuals wch they 
cannot have there. I suppose a fortnight's bread and cheese wth 
powder and bullets for 2G0 men, will be as little as may be, and that to 
be speeded to Pascatag to Mr. Martin or Major Waldron for the use 
of our forces. I am sorry so much time hath beene lost about Casco 
to little purpose, and now they are drawne southward and divided to 
their great discontent by an order of yr Council the lGth of Sept. I 
suppose upon Major Waldron's solicitation wch would undoe all, but I 
have by your later order contradicted that order, and by name 
required all the comanders, as Hunting, Siblo and Frost, to attend the 
orders and comands of Capt. Hawthorne, and ordered him twice to 
march to ye Indian Quarters, where the women and children are, as 
also more than 20 English prisoners, and take a convenient strength, 
giving notice to yr towns to stand upon their defence in the meane 
time, wth such assistance as can well be spared. I hope the Council 
will take order to make the people keep their stations and hasten 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. H 

provisions, which Mr. Martin as well as the Gover'r can assure are 
not to be had in those parts. I have not further to add but 
contending you to God, subscribe myselfe 

Your humble Servant, Daniel Denison. 

Ips. Oct. -°>, 1676. 

Oct. 12, 1676. The Court appointed General Denison to proceed 
to Portsmouth and to take chief command of the forces there destined 
for the war at the eastward. He was authorized "to impress men, 
horses, ammunition and provisions and as to him shall seem mete." 
In this connection we extract the following from Hubbard's Present 
State of New-England: — "The Governor and Council of the Massa- 
chusetts had at this time their hands full with the like attempts of 
Philip and his complices to the Westward, yet were not unmindful of 
the deplorable condition of these Eastern plantations, having 
committed the care thereof to the respective regiments of the several 
counties on that side of the country, but more especially to the care 
and prudence of the honoured Major Daniel Denison, the Major 
General of the whole Colony, a gentleman who by his great insight in 
and long experience of all martial affairs, was every way accomplished 
for the managing thejwhole affairs." 

Active operations against the enemy at the eastward were carried 
on until late in the autumn of 1676, under the direction of General 
Denison. Mugg, the Etechemin s5chem, surrendered himself to the 
Commander-in-Chief, and was sent to Boston, where a treaty was 
concluded, k stipulating.; the cessation of hostilities, the restoration of 
prisoners, &c. This state of peace continued, however, only until 
the following spring, when hostilities were again commenced, and did 
not cease until the termination of the war in the spring of 1678. In 
the year 1677, Denison was not elected to the ollice of Major-General, 
but during the remaining years of his life he occupied that position. 

As one of the licencers of the press, with Bradstreet and Dudley, he 
authorizes the imprint and publication of Hubbard's Narrative, March 
29, 1077. In May, of this year, he is one of three to grant permis- 
sion to Indians to carry arms. In April he wrote the following letter 
to Capt. Charles Frost, who was engaged in superintending the 
garrisons in the county of York : 

To,Capt"Charles Frost, — You are hereby authorized to take under 
your command and conduct fifty foot soldiers herewith sent you of 
the County of Essex and Norfolk, commanding them to obey you as 
their Captain, whom you are to lead and conduct against the common 
Enemy now infesting Yorkshire, whom you are with all diligence to 
pursue and destroy, as also to succor and assist the English of Wells, 



28 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICn, MASS. 

York, Neechiwannickor elsewhere, as you shall have opportunity. 
And the said soldiers are hereby required to attend your orders and 
commands for the prosecution of the enemy as abovesaid according to 
the rules and orders of Military discipline ; and you are to attend 
such orders and instructions as from time to time you shall receive 
from myself or other superior authority, and for so doing this shall be 
your warrant. Daniel Denison, Major Gen. 

April 12, 1677. 

The General Court granted to Gen. Denison, Oct. 10, 1677, an 
island of six or seven acres opposite the middle of his farm, for his 
distinguished services. 

The distemper to which the following letter alludes, was undoubt- 
edly the small pox ; and according to the suggestion, the Court met 
at Cambridge. 

July 8, 1678. Mr. Secretary, — Wee received your 2d letters of 
invitation to come to Boston though by neither wee understand any 
necessity of a present meeting, and by reason of the present distemper 
prevailing at Boston cannot be satisfied that anything less than an 
absolute necessity ought to draw us to Boston at this season ; if 
therefore there must be a meeting, wee desire as wee intimated to 
Major Gookins some other place may be appointed (which wee shall 
if want of health hinder not, attend though wth difficulty enough,) 
wee doubt not but Salem can accommodate such an occasion ; but if 
that be too farr, though twice so farr hatb not beene the end of our 
many journeys upon such occas-ions for many yeares, wee doubt not 
but Cambridge may be thought more fitt than Boston at present. 
When we understand the council's resolutions (to whom wee desire 
you to impart these) we shal endeavor to apply ourselves accordingly. 
.Not to trouble you further at present, we rest, Your loving friends, 

Samuel Symonds, 
Daniel Denison. 

In January, 1681, the General Court ordered a copy of the letter 
from the King, respecting Mason's claims to certain territory, to be 
given to Gen. Denison and the other Magistrates of the County of 
Essex for their consideration, and that by this course the tenants of 
the villages on the south side of the Merrimac, a portion of which 
were claimed by Mason, might meet together at Ipswich or Newbury. 
In June, following, the Court made answer to the King's letter as 
follows; — " We have published his pleasure to the villages on the 
south of the Merrimack, some part whereof Mr. Mason claims. But 
neither the inhabitants there, nor we, know Mason's bounds. We 
are in hope that what may be presented to his Majesty on behalf of 



DENISON MEUOKIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 29 

said inhabitants will obviate the clamour and groundi :ss pretence of 
the complainers.'' 

In the Massachusetts Archives, there is the following order, which 
had passed the House of Deputies, Feb. is, 1681. Major General 
Daniel Denison : "To be paid L0£ which he advanced in case of 
Mason's claims." 

Of the remaining months of General Denison's life we know but 
very little As he was chosen an Assistant the very year in which 
his death occurred, we may presume that the distressing disease of 
which he died did not prevent him from performing the public duties 
to which he was called, until very near the end. In the performance 
of these public duties he had been Representative 11 years, Speaker of 
the House 3 years, Assistant 29 years, Major-General of the entire 
military force of the Colony 11 years, Commissioner of the United 
Colonies 8 years, and once President of the Board. It is probable 
that he occupied the leisure moments of the latter portion of his active 
Hie in writing the treatise which he left at his decease, and which 
was published by his goxl pastor, Win. Hubbard, two years after that 
event. The volume, which is entitled Irenicon, or Salve for Near 
England's Sore, is exceedingly rare, and is a good specimen of the 
quaint language of the day. In this he considers, 1. What our 
present maladies are intended in this discourse. 2. What might he 
the occasion there of. 3. The danger. 4. The blameable causes. 
5. The cure. He says : 

lk Among the manifold symptoms of this Disease, I apprehend none 
more threatening our dissolution than the sad and unreasonable 
divisions about matters of Religion. ... A receipt of these five simples 
without composition accompanied with Fasting and Praying till they 
are well digested, with God's blessing may bring about the expected 
cure ; for the Dose you need not trouble yourself, there is not danger 
of taking too much. And if this should fail, which I fear not, I have 
another receipt, but I fear it is somewhat corroding, which I hope I 
shall never have occasion to use, my lenitives working according to 
my expectations. So I take my leave committing you to God and a 

good Nurse." 

* 

During the very last month of his life he was called upon to give 
his opinion in matters relating to the church at Andover. 

General Denison died September 20, 1682, at the age of three score 
years and ten. The death of so distinguished a public servant called 
forth expressions of grief not alone among his immediate family and 
townsmen, but throughout the Colony. That he was a man of dis- 
tinguished abilities, and those of a most varied character, the services 
to which he was called continuously through a long life abundantly 



30 DKNISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

testify. That he performed these services faithfully, and satisfactorily 
to his constituents, is shown by his constant re-election to offices of 
great public trust, even after it was acknowledged that he belonged to 
the moderate party, and when, by his speeches, he proved that he 
was ready to yield to the King's prerogative. Randolph, in 1673, in 
answer to inquiries respecting the present state of New England, and 
who were the most popular in the magistracy, enumerates Gen. 
Denison among the most popular and well principled men. Mr. 
Savage, in his life of Winthrop, speaks thus of Denison : ''The 
moderate spirit by which he was actuated, had not a general spread, 
yet the continuance of his election to the same rank, when his 
sympathy was not, in relation to the controversy with the crown, in 
unison with that of the people, is evidence of the strong hold his 
virtue and public labors had acquired." Moreover, we have every 
reason to suppose that his character was strengthened and supported 
by religious influences, adding thereby to his eminence among men. 

It is much to be regretted that we have neither portrait nor des- 
cription of the person of General Denison ; and of his private worth, 
we glean our knowledge chiefly from the funeral sermon preached by 
his pastor. The text was Isaiah 3: 1-3, " For, behold, the Lord, 
the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah, 
the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of 
water. The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the 
prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and 
the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and 
the eloquent orator." 

" There are but few men born into the world in an}' age, in whom 
all these desirable qualities are eminently met together. And none in 
ihese parts of the world (if that be not too great a word to sa}',) in 
whom so many or more of such honorable endowments were joined 
together in such a degree. The greater is our sorrow who are now 
met together to solemnize the funeral of a person of so great worth, 
enriched with so many Excellencies, which made him neither live 
undesired nor die unlamented, nor go to his grave unobserved. 

" Is there not a Prince and a great man fal'n this day in Israel, 
so in a sense, it may, be said here— a great man is fallen in our little. 
Israel. . • • Concerning the Gentleman whose Funeral obsequies were 
lately celebrated amongst us, not to say more than is convenient to 
prevent emulation in them that are surviving. His Parts and 
Abilities were well known amongst those with whom he lived, and 
might justly place him among the first three, having indeed many 
natural advantages above others for the more easie attaining of skil! 
in every science. 



DKN1S0N MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 3 1 

" His military skill some 3'ears before his death advanced him to 
the conduct and command of the whole, which he was able to have 
managed with great exactness, yet was he not inferior in other 
ociences :~and as a good souldier of Christ Jesus, he had attained to 
no small confidence in his last conflicts with the King of Terrors; 
being not afraid to look Death in the face in cold blood, but with 
great composed ness of mind received the last Summons. For though 
ho was followed with tormenting pain of the Stone or Strangury, that 
pursued him to the last, he neither expressed impatience under those 
grinding paius nor want of confidence or comfort from his first seizure. 
So having fought the good fight, run his race, and finished his course, 
he quietly resigned his spirit to God that gave it. His last thoughts 
and endeavours were for the good of the publick, as may be seen by 
the Irenicon now lately found amongst his papers, which it is thought 
would be too much ingratitude to withold from view any longer." 

His funeral obsequies were conducted in a manner worthy of his 
distinguished rank, as may be judged from the following, copied from 
the Massachusetts Archives : 

" Whereas it hath pleased the Lord in his Sovereign Providence to 
take away our Honored Daniel Denison, Esq., and in regard to his 
long continuance a Major General, it occasioned a very considerable 
charge at his funeral, and the annual income of his family being but 
small, the Magistrates judge meet that the Treasurer allow to his 
widdow the full of this year's sallary, until May next, and also twenty 
pounds in money to be pd the sd widdow in payt of her sd funeral 
charges. The magistrates have past this their brethren the Deputvs 
hereto consenting. Edward Rawson, Sec'y. 

Oct. 18, 1682. 

The Deputys consent not hereto. William Torrey, Clerk. 

Mrs. Denison survived her husband eight years, her death occuring 
Feb. 8, 1690. They had two children, John and Elisabeth. John 
married Martha, daughter of Deputy Governor Symonds, and had 
three children ; he died Jan. 9, 1671. Elizabeth married Rev. John 
Rogers, President of Harvard College. 

John, son of John and Martha Denison, graduated at Harvard 
College, was chosen as colleague with Mr. Hubbard, and was much 
beloved by his people. His life was short. His sister Martha mar 
ried Matthew Whipple, and died Sept. 12, 1725, aged 60 years. 
Daniel, his brother, it* is thought, lived on the Denison estate at 
Merrimac, and his descendants are stdl to be found in New England. 



32 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

Edward, one of the brothers of Gen. Denison, made Roxbury his 
residence, and there married Eliza, daughter of Joseph Weld. He 
was representative in 1652 and 1655 He had a large family ; one of 
the sons, William, graduated at Harvard College in 1681. He died 
April 26, 1668, and his wife in 1717. 

George, the remaining brother, married at Roxbury, Bridget 
Thomson, and had two children. His wife dying in 1643, he went to 
England and served in Cromwell's army. Marrying again, he 
returned to Roxbury, and was there made freeman in 1618. Shortly 
afterwards he removed to New London, Conn., and much distinguished 
himself in Philip's war, as an energetic and extremely capable com- 
mander. He died Oct. 23, 1694. His widow died in 1712, aged 97. 
By his second marriage he had eight children. 

The will of Major-General Denison has been preserved, and the 
following extracts are of interest : 

" Daniel Denison of Ipswich, being in good health and memory, 
doe thus ordaine my last will." After providing for his daughter and 
her son, it says: " To my wife Patience, I bequeath the rest of my 
estate in houses, lands, cattle, money, &c, for her support and for 
the education and maintenance of my grandchild, John Denison, and 
for the relief of my grandchildren, Daniel and Martha Denison, if 
they be in neede, for whose education and maintenance I have 
otherwise provided." 

The will was made July 16, 1673, and the last codicil, December 
22, 1680. 

The inventory of the estate, taken Oct. 17, 1682, is as follows: 
Amount, .£2105, 13s. Debts due estate £28, 10s. County pay 
£390, 8s, 2d. 



DENISOfl MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. ;;;; 



$pettmx)al Skatch. 



Ipswich, — 1633-1682. 

v 

AUGUSTINE CALDWELL. 

Daniel and Patience [Dudley] Denison came hither hand in 
hand in 1634, and took up their life-long abode. " The eyelids of 
the morning were just lighting up our hills," and the sound of the 
hammer j was still heard upon our primitive houses. A twelve-month 
had hardly passed since the pinnace of the younger Winthrop floated 
over the bar and up the river, and cast anchor, as tradition has it, at 
the spot now known as Edward Choate's shipyard ; and claiming 
there the virgin soil, they built the first place of shelter. 

A rumor drifted into Boston in the spring of 1633. that the Jesuits 
were to establish an [ndian mission here ; and the staunch elder 
Winthrop, then Governor, with action as quick as thought, sent his 
own iron faith and will, incarnated in his best beloved son, and these 
old hills echoed the first sounds of civilized labor, and the corner 
stone of a golden town was laid. Planters and their servants flocked 
hither ; men of strong names and gentle birth : people of letters and 
liberal thought ; and when, a few months later, the General Court 
baptized the plantation, a name was given which thousands have 
since loved as they do the name of mother. 

Denison was twenty-two years old when he came, — a ruddy youth, 
like David. He took his position at once a man among these men ; he 
was honored, desired, and for forfy-eight years in town and colonial 
interests, he held their regards without loss or wavering. It was said 
of him while he was yet living, that he was the most popular magis- 
trate of the colony, and seven generations have kept his memory 
fresh. 

When Mr. John Norton died in 1663, (a minister of the church on 
the hill, "studied in arts and tongues," whose naturally sour temper 
was somewhat "sweetened by grace,") CoUon Mather wrote for his 
gravestone : " If you need to ask who he was you, ought not to know." 

This apothegm was apt for that generation, but we of two centuries 
later, otten need "to roll back the tide of time" and inqnire, — 
." Who were the early people? what did they do and say?" And 
one part of this Commemorative programme is to glance at the social 



31 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

and public life of Denison and his peers, and at the times when he 
was Commander of the little handful of men who made up the 
protective forces of two hundred years ago. To do this let us in 
imagination enter primitive Ipswich, and call upon the young Captain, 
Clerk of the Town and Deputy to General Court, — for Denison was 
each of these at twenty-four, — and walk with him awhile among his 
fellows. We cannot easily enter the town by land, for there is only 
an Indian path between Boston and Ipswich, leading into town over 
what is now the Topsfield road. John Dane, who built a house on 
Turkey Shore, near Major Woodbury's (now the Foss house,) came 
over this path in 1635. It was such an indifferent way that he was 
"sometimes in it and sometimes out of it" Governor Winthrop 
walked down in 1633, and "exercised here by way of prophecy," as 
they called preaching then. He walked down again in 1637, and all 
Ipswich turned out to meet him. The constables preceeded him with 
halberds, perhaps, for that was the custom. When public men or 
Court officials came to Ipswich, they were ushered into town by 
Sheriffs carrying halberds ; and we find on our records that a man 
was once paid for mending the town halberds. Judge Sewall came to 
Ipswich Court earlier than Sheriff Harris expected him, and the 
Judge was not conducted in state to Sparks' Tavern So unusual 
was it that he made a note of the fact in his Diary. William Adams 
a boy of fifteen, went from Ipswich to Cambridge College in 1666, 
in this same Indian path, and lost the track and staid in the woods 
all night. 

The earliest method of travel seems to have been by boat. Dep. 
Gov. Symonds wrote to a friend in Boston, "let me know when yon 
are to come that I may send horses to the boat." We can come, if wo 
choose, with old Matthias Button or Henry Kinsman, who in 1634, 
the year Denison first pressed Ipswich soil, began to run occasional 
boats between Ipswich and Boston. They are the the first Messengers 
of which we have record. Mary (Winthrop) Dudly, sister-in-law of 
the Denisons, who lived on Spring street, then called Brooke street, 
received by them some pinnes and sope, some flowered holland for a 
wast coat and tape to bind it, &c. With these Messengers let us 
float up the river. 

On both banks are pleasant single houses of two stories, with hall, 
parlor and kitchen on the first floor ; room over the hall, and room 
over the parlor ; Luthern windows, wooden chimneys as wide as the 
house and plastered within with clay, and "doors high enough to 
enter without stooping."* If we stop a moment at the Choate ship- 



*See Symonds' letter to John Winthrop, jr., in Winthrop Papers; 
inventory of Mr. Cobbitt, Daniel Ringe and others. 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 35 

yard, we shall find that Thomas Hardy, once a servant of Gov. 
Winthrop, has supplanted the first rude shelter by a strong frame 
house and dug a well ; the same old well which gives living waters 
to-day. We will not stop to drink now, but will sail up the stream. 
There is no dam at Damon's saw and grist mills to hinder the progress 
of our boat, though Mr. Richard Saltonstall thought one could be 
made to advantage ; and a hundred years later the Mannings built 
one, and the ledges at that point were called "the lime-kiln rocks." 
As we sail by the garden of the late Capt. Samuel N. Baker we find 
that first Firmin and then Appleton built ware houses there ; still 
higher, at Choate Bridge, we find first a lighter or gondola, and then 
logs and planks to carry men and horses over, and land them just 
before the door of Mr. Manasseh Brown's residence, which in that 
day was Reginald Foster's. Still higher up the stream we must go, to 
the stone and brick mills, — and now we may land, for here is the first 
Ipswich home of Daniel and Patience Denison. It is a humble 
house. Some of you remember it. More than forty years ago an 
old Mr. Lancaster and his daughter Mehitable lived there. Humble, 
and yet those early gentle-folk had tasteful and attractive homes. 
We read in inventories of Turkish rugs, tapestried walls, leather- 
covered chairs. Dep. Gov. ISymonds at Argilla, had red and green 
curtains, cushions of'Turkey-worke, a suite of damask, a carved chest, 
&c. Madam Rebekah Symonds had Dodd on the Commandments 
bound in green plush, her favorite book. 

This house of Denison by the mill, remained in his possession two 
years, then he sold it to Humphrey Griffin, and Griffin sold it to the 
Burnhams, and the Burnhams to Anthony Potter, whose widow gave a 
silver communion cup to the First Church; and Anthony sold it to 
the S affords, whose descendants retained it till almost our own day. 
You can remember the Saffords, the men were blacksmiths, with a 
shop near the hayscales on the Topsfield road. 

Major Denison's second house was near or upon Meeting House 
Hill. Matthew Whipple had a house "neere ye meeting house,' 
which had Major Denison's house S. W., Theophilus Wilson, N. W. 
a Lane S. P^. the streete N. E His houselot touched the Pound. 
This house* was burned in 1665, and Sarah Roper, a servant of the 
family was "comitted to prison on suspition of hir wickedly & 



* 11 Jan. 1639. Granted to mr. fawne a house lott adjoyneing to 
mr. Appleton six acre near ye mill. Granted to Daniell Denison a 
house lott next mr. fawnes to the scirt of the hill next the swamp. — 
The swamp here alluded to was later described as "the low. watery, 
miry land," a few rods in the rear of the store of Mr. I. K. Jewett, 
it remained low and swampy till after the revolution. Mr. Appleton's 
house was near the E. R. R. depot. The hill is meeting house hill. 



36 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

felloniously burning it." She was acquitted, but found guilty of 
stealing from the Denisons, and was "whipt wth tenn stripes vpon 
her naked bod}." Denison built a new house on the same site. 

The Homes of Ipswich to which Denison was always welcome 
would certainly win us to-day, if they existed. They were the homes 
of the "Ynhabitants who engaged to pay yearly in way of gratuitye 
an amount of money to encourage liim in his military helpfullnes unto 
them." Let us go forth from his house, and walk with him about the 
streets, as David did his Zion. 

Just before the front door of his house by the mill, is a river-ford 
kept open by the town through all generations since. We can cross 
to this side the stream, entering the road nearly in front of this Hall. 
We must first pay our duty, as old-time people called it, to the 
Ministers. They live not far from the old ford. The Town Records 
and well-authenticated tradition, mark the very places. The order of 
the houses on the street, as given upon the Selectmen's book is, — Mr. 
Rogers, Mr. Tuttle, Mr. Ward and Mr. Winthrop ; a stately street 
for a new town. We will go first to Mr. Rogers', whose son married 
Denison's only daughter. Where Mrs. Trask now lives, stood the 
house which sheltered the first Nathaniel Rogers; and the adjoining 
house which was built a century ago by Mr. Thomas Baker, was 
partly made of the Rogers timbers. When the late David' Baker 
built the house in which Mrs Trask resides, a silver cup was dug up, 
with the initials N. R. Ipswich will never cease to regard her Rogers 
and his descendants, — a man of such self distrust, that Mr. Ward 
said of him, "though he had grace enough in his heart for two men, 
he had not half enough for himself." And of his father, the Rev. 
John Rogers of Dedham, England, — a Boanerges truly, — the more 
one reads of him the better they love him ; his old portrait, painted in 
1623, hung on Ipswich walls a hundred years, and a copy of it was, in 
1881, placed in our Public Library. 

From the Rogers home to Rev. Nathaniel Ward's is but a stride. 
It was just at the east of the Col. Nathaniel Wade* mansion. When 
Mr. Theodore F. Cogswell opened the new street at that place, which 
he wisely christened Ward street, the old cellar lines and chimney 
bricks were unearthed. There Ward wrote " The Simple Cobbler of 
Agawam," printed in 1647; there, also, he prepared the " Body of 
Laws," which Stephen H. Phillips, Esq., of Salem, said would be 
called a great work by wise men of any age. Over his mantel he 
inscribed, Sobrie, Juste, Pie, Lcete; threads woven into his life, 
probably. Twelve years he lived there, "dignified as Sidney or 
Milton," then went back to England. 

* The Wade mansion was built in 1728. 



OEN1SON MEMORIAL, IPdWICU, -MASS. d'l 

A few rods to the east is the Winthrop house, begun in the spring 
of 1G33, and not finished in October, and the elder Winthrop feared it 
would not be suitable for his son's winter comfort. To this house 
came Martha (Fones) Winthrop, in the freshness of her bridal days, 
and died in less than a year. They carried her, doubtless, to the 
yard on the Hill, and grieved over her early death. Here came, also, 
Elisabeth Reade, Winthrop's second bride, and her sister with her, — 
Mistress Margaret Lake. [Another sister became the second wife of 
Dep. Gov. Symonds.] 

Close at hand were the Tuttles, an interesting family and rich ; 
some of the.n went home to old England for a visit. 

Robert Andrews, who kept the first Tavern in town, owned a 
house lot where Mr. Zenas Cushing's mansion stands. His old 
Tavern, in which he resided, tradition saj's was on the site of the first 
Methodist Meeting House. It was a one story house, and stood until 
the early part of the present century. An old desk is still in town, 
which he brought from England. His son Thomas was Schoolmaster, 
and fitted boys for Cambridge. Thomas lived in Ezekiel Cheever's 
house, which people of sixty years ago could well remember. One of 
his scholars was William Adams, to whom reference has already been 
made, who became the young minister of Dedham, and died early. 

Directly opposite the mansion of Mr. .John Heard, lived Samuel 
Hall, a young man of wealth and very open hands : liberal be was, 
certainly, some called him convivial, and reproved him sharply because 
he invited young fellows to his parlor to drink his wines. The General 
Court 'ttined him Vs for drunkenes by him comitted a shipboard." 
but he did not pay it. In his old age, and after he went back to 
England, he gave a legacy to Ipswich Soldiers who suffered in the 
Indian wars. He lived in town when our boys marched away to the 
Pequot war, 1637, and he heard in England of the fearful scenes of 
1676, and provided by his will for the needs of the sufferers. Mad. 
Rebekah Symonds dipensed his bounty. 

Another philanthropic name, never to be forgotten by Ipswich sous, 
was Mr. Richard ^altonstall, a close neighbor of Denison. He was 
the William Lloyd Garrison of his day. He entered the first manly 
protest against slavery. (1645.) A truer man never trod Ipswich 
soil. Would he could have died among us, that we might be richer 
for his dust. His is the first name on that noble list who petitioned 
Gen. Denison to stay in town. The late Luther Waite, a young 
man of true antiquarian taste, published this list just before his 
lamented death. Mr. Saltonstall was one of the very few who knew 
where the Regicides were. In 1672 he gave them £50. The tradition 
from his day to ours is, that his sympathy and care brought them to 



38 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

Ipswich, and they were secreted for awhile in the ancient Appleton 
house, now the residence of Mrs. Whilhelmina Wildes. It is a very 
interesting fact that the halls the Saltonstalls left when they came 
to New England, were purchased by the Earl of Strafford, who was 
beheaded in the reign of Charles I. The estate still remains in pos- 
session of the Earl's descendants. The old Ipswich home of the 
family still remains ; one of the quaintest of our relics. We like to 
look at it for the sake of its builder. 

Close by the earliest Denison house lived Nicholas Easton, a man of 
active brain, and much better understood to-day than in his own time. 
He was associated with Denison in the care of the gunpowder. He 
had "woful errors" they thought, to which we may allude again. He 
moved away, and Ipswich saints rejoiced and were glad. He went to 
Newport and built the first house in that, now famed city, and was 
Governor of Rhode Island. 

Later still, through the influence of Mr. Saltonstall, came the 
Farleys, staunch, practical, unblemished. 

Moving along, hurriedly, we next call upon old Thomas Scott ; not 
old then, however, but in his prime, at Denison's word marching away 
to the Pequot war. He was a — free thinker, shall we call it? 
independant thinker would be better, perhaps, not an unusual thing 
in that golden day of Ipswich life. He was openly rebuked and fined 
for not saying Mr. Norton's Catechism. (It seems that grown-up 
people were catechized then.) There was a grsat oak before his door 
which was smitten by lightning the same Sunday that Quarter-master 
Perkins' Bible lost the book of Revelation by the same power and his 
waistcoat riddled as if by shot, and he himself unharmed. Scott lived 
near Damon's corner, and from his day until after the Revolution, 
Washington street went by his name. 

Within a stone's throw of Scott was the name of Appleton, Samuel 
the elder by his presence and power giving grace and influence to the 
community; while > c amuel the second, (a marvel of bravery, who 
stood for hours face to face with death in the Hadley fight,) has a 
name on the same bistoric page with honored Denison, Endicott, 
Mason, Underbill, and others who faced the foe and held the field. 
Ipswich will yet find satisfaction in writing his name in imperishable 
letters on her tablets. A braver officer never grasped a sword 

There is another grand man of that generation, [whose daughter 
married Denison's only son,] whom to know is to revere : Dep. Gov. 
Symonds. His escutcheon was a clover leaf, simple and beautiful as 
his life. He lived at Argilla, though he had a town house where the 
Seminary stands. He was eminently social and had many visitors. 
Judge Sewall one June day walked from the Appletons to Argilla and 
ate wild strawberries which grew abundantly on the Symonds farm 



DENISON MBMORIAL, IISUK 11. MASS •".'.» 

then as they did when some of us were boys. There is one pretty 
glimpse of his social life in the Winthrop Papers, a gathering on a 

November day, 1658, when he was at homo from Court : " My cozens 
all three were in health and as merry as very good cheere and Ipswich 
frends could make them." The "frends" enumerated were Madam 
Symonds, Mistress Lake, Sam: Symonds his son, Mistress Nath'l 
Rogers and three of her sons, Mr. Hubbard and his family. Mr 
Daniel Epps, (whose wife was Elizabeth Symonds,) and his family. 
A genial dinner party, surely. ( )ne pleasing feature of Gov. Symonds 
was, he allowed Mad. Rebekah Symonds to spend her income as 
pleased her. Engrossed r.lways in public affairs,' with fatherly inter- 
est looking after apprentices, servants, tenants, (and he had many.) 
he died with his harness on atRoston, and was laid in the Winthrop 
tomb. 

We have recently read forty to fifty unprinted letters- written by 
Mr. .John Hall of Assington, England, to his mother. Madam 
Rebekah Symonds of Ipswich. From them we catch glimpses of this 
lady's shopping lists, when she was about sixty years of age. Her 
shoes ordered from London were damson and purple Turkey leather 
and satin, scarlet stockings, a light violet coulerpettieoat. "grave and 
suitable for a person of quality." She wished for a lawn whiffe, hut 
her son answered, "all gentle women wear now instead, shapes and 
rubles; and such as goe not with naked necks ware black silk 
witlles ;" and so he forwarded the shape, rrniles and wifHe. She had a 
spotted gauze gown, a stripped silk, a cinnamon silk, a (lowered silk, 
"with paries as they rate them to weare in the sleeves as the fashion 
is for some." Silver gimp and ribbons for trimming. A black sarinden 
cloak, and two black plush muffs, "modish and long." An alamode 
scarf, plaine lutestring scarf, a tabby flowered satin manto with a 
silver clasp and without a lining : a pair of embroidered satin shoes 
to match the manto. We suppose as Mad. Symonds was the wife of 
the Dep. Governor, she was familiar with the Colony law: " Noe 
pson, either man or woman, shall make or buy any slashed cloathes, 
other then one slashe in each sleeve, and another in the backe ; also 
all cutt works, imbroidered or needle worke capps ; bands and rayles 
are forbidden here after to be made <X: worne ; also all gold and silver 
girdles, hatt bands., belts, ruffs, beav'r hats are prohibited to be 
nought and worne." But our Fathers very wisely left this loop-hole 



'These letters are in the archives of the American Antiquarian 
Society, /Worcester, and by the kindness and courtesy of Mr. F. M. 
Barton, Librarian, and the Library Committee, we had permission to 

examine these interesting letters, and many books to aid us in the 
compilation of this Sketch 



'A) DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

of escape, "it is the meaneing of the Court that men and women shall 
haue liberty to weare out such app'ell as they are now provided of, 
except the immoderate greate sleeves, slashed app'ell, greate rayles 
and long wings." As clothing did not wear out in those days, we 
presume the enactments of Court did not much modify the fashion. 

Mad Symonds wished to fan herself with a feather fan, and ordered 
one from London ; but her son wrote, " None but very grave persons 
vse a feather fan, and now tis growne almost as obsolete as Russets, 
and more rare to be seen then a Yellow Hood ; but the thing being 
civil and not dear I send one." He sent also two tortoise shell fans, 
and the feathers had a silver handle. She wore hoods to match her 
gowns, and bought two at a time : two lustre hoods, two whiffle 
hoods, two manto silk hoods, two spotted gauze hoods, aud one 
brown lutestring. She had a locket containing the picture of her 
grandaughter, little Betty Hall, and two necklaces, one of amber and 
another of Scotch pearl. If a relative in England died, a mourning 
ring was sent to her; if any married, wedding gloves came. House- 
keepers may be interested to know that she sent from Argilla farm to 
London town for a quarter of a pound of nutmegs and two ounces 
each of cloves, mace and pepper. She ordered several times three 
thousand pins and one hundred needles She had three children and 
never saw them together for eighteen years, and she outlived them 
all. These letter-gleanings are mere trifles, but trifles two hundred 
years old become gold dust. 

We cannot walk half over town, for there yet remain Gov. Simon 
and Mrs. Anne (Dudley) Bradstreet, — sister of Patience Denison ; 
for eight years Ipswich was their home, and here the young poetess 
wrote several of her rhymes, and here some of her children were born ; 
and there is Governor Thomas Dudley, father of Mistress Denison, he 
lived next door to the Bradstreets on High street, a few rods east of 
the Burying Yard ; he was the first person on record who employed 
Indians as servants; Robert Lord and William Bartholomew, our 
early Clerks and noble men ; the Paines who founded the Grammar 
School ; the Cogswells who lived in tapestried rooms ; the Wades and 
Bakers who married Governors daughters ; John Dane who left a 
quaint story of his English boyhood ; Daniel Warner who wrote 
poetry; and our own Hubbard, with jewelled lips, the pride of our 
town's young life. These were the type of men who grasped the folds 
of Denison's doublet, when the richness of the banks of the Merrimac 
lured him, and prevailed upon him to stay. 

But with all that must remain unsaid, there is one more we ought to 
talk about, — the Town doctor, — Gyles Firmin. I know not where 
his house was, but his son Thomas built the house now owned ' by the 



DlONlsu.N MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. -II 

heirs of the late Capt. Samuel N. Baker. Doct'r Gyles Firmin mar- 
ried Susan Ward, the minister's daughter. Uis letters are full of 
interesting things, [n one of them he complained that Ipswich was 
so healthy that "the gaines of physick would not find him with bread ;" 
and therefore he was "strongly sett upon to studye divinitee. for 
physick is but a meene helpe." We do not wonder that physic proved 
a meene Iielpe, if all prescriptions were like the one given at that date 
for tooth-ache, viz., Gunpowder and brimstone compounded with 
butter, which '-proved very available," they said. If, with gunpowder 
in the mouth, the breath caught fire, as did Betty Tetlock's, we can 
certainly see its "availability;" an easy method of extraction, maybe. 

The Doctor found not only a healthy place but a moral one, for in 
"seven years he never saw a man drunk or heard an oath :" but he 
adds naively, as if he doubted what he wrote, "if such sinnes be 
among us privily, the Lord heale us." His father-in law, Ward, 
greatly mourned that Ipswich had so many people, because too much 
of " Satan's kingdom crept into our borders ;" and he wished to do 
just what California did the other day to the Chinese, — shut people 
out. Satan's kingdom was not easily shut out; indeed, it came in 
the first Winthrop vessel, for Robert Cole and William Perkins, 
(not the ancestor of our Perkinses, however,) had to stand "one hour 
in publique vewe, with a white sheete of pap on the brest, haveing a 
greate D made vpon it," for drinking strong water too freely. 

The Baker boys had a young friend, — John Perley,— who took a 
free ride on a neighbor's horse, and was shut up in Boston jail. The 
Bakers went to Boston, broke the jail door, and set him free. It made 
much scandal. Thomas Bragg and Edward Cogswell fought in the 
meeting house in sermon time. A young man, whose name I have 
lost, smoked tobacco in the street on a Sabbath-day, which was quite 
as bad as the sin of young Nathaniel Mather of Boston, who whittled 
a stick behind the door one Sunday between sermons; the remem- 
brance of which lay hard upon his conscience for years, and he talked 
about it on his death bed. John Lee, one of the smartest and 
headiest of our Ipswich men, [his seal was a martlet,] was whipt and 
liined for calling Mr. Justice Ludlow of Boston, "false-hearted knave, 
hard-hearted knave, and heavy ffriend," a truth, probably, which 
should have remained unspoken. 

One queer evidence of the [total?] depravity of our early- 
Ipswich appears in the case of Henry Bachelor, who did not go to 
meeting. It was not because he had no seat, for the Selectmen added 
benches and stools as fast as people moved into town to occupy them. 
It was found that Henry and his wife lived too far from the meeting 
house ; therefore the Selectmen were empowered by Court to sell his 



42 DENIS0N MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

farm and move him to town where he could easily go and hear Mr. 
Cobbitt dispense the gospel. We sincerely hope he enjoyed Mr. 
Cobbitt's sermons better than Henry Walton did of Lynn, who said 
he had as "leave heare a dogg Barke, as to heare Mr. Cobbitt 
preach." For which rudeness he was fined by the Court. Court 
Records are a strange mixture. We can well understand why Nicho- 
las Easton declared that "all the elect had an indwelling devil and an 
indwelling Holy Ghost." This assertion was voted a "woful error," 
but when we read that, in 1639, the ministers of the Colony discovered 
eighty errors of faith, we do not wonder that sombody thought there 
was a leaven besides the Holy Ghost affecting the lump. This 
discovery banished Roger Williams, who was "like to set on fire all 
America by the Rapid motion of a windmill in his head ;" and Anne 
Hutchinson, "of voluble wit and nimble tongue ;" and caused Cotton 
Mather to rank all grades of heretics as people of "fly-blown under- 
standings." Two hundred years later we look differently at these 
heresies and heretics. Resurrection comes to every bod}' sooner or 
later. Those who were buried heretics eventually come out of the 
grave saints, and "rub the dust from out their eyes." 

There is another page of Denison's dav to be looked at. It shows 
why one hundred and forty-five strong right Ipswich hands covenanted 
to pay him an annuity as long as he lived in town. Not only the 
men of quality, but the muscular arms that could grasp ax or musket; 
trusting life and property to his prudence and sagacity : men who 
covenanted when they left English soil never to "linger after their 
English diet or harbor disease in their minds by discontent;" men 
who came to stay, whatever occurred. 

We can never trulv understand the terror which pervaded hearts, 
at times, during the first half century of New England life. Cotton 
Mather said it was often' agony of spirit. The great and almost 
interminable foes were the Indians, who only wanted opportunity lo 
tomahawk every white man on the soil. Now and then one touched 
civilization. Old Masconomet, the Ipswich Sagamore, (for whom a 
fire engine was named in my boyhood,) whose grave is on Sagamore 
Hill at Hamilton, took an oath that he would keep the Ten Com- 
mandments, and the Ipswich Church hoped this heal hen was 
redeemed. But when they saw that he broke them at every oppor- 
tunity, they sadly concluded that he only followed Christ for the loaves 
he did not know how to bake and the fishes he was too lazy to catch. 

When Ipswich was settled there were the Terratines in Maine, more 
cruel than Turks ; the Pequots and Narragansets in Connecticut and 
Rhode Island ; besides clans along the shores, Agawams, Naumkeags, 
and others. With them there was repeated struggle. Our own 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS 43 

Hubbard gathered much of his History of it, from living lips. When 
the Winthrop men were breaking the turf to lay the foundation of 
their first places of shelter, the Indians told them that only a few 
weeks before the Terrateens invaded Agawam and carried away the 
Sagamore's wife. And during the first Spring, ( 1(533,) while the 
men were planting, forty canoes filled with Terratines came up to the 
Neck, and but for the calmness and resolution of John Perkins, the 
Winthrop men would have been exterminated. When, in 1637, 21 
of our boys marched away to the sound of the kettle-drum to Connec- 
ticut, all Ipswich was ajar with fears; and from 1637 to 1675 an 
attack would not have been a surprise any day. 

We who sit without fear to night in this pleasant Hall, cannot 
realize that for forty years there was a house on Meeting House 
Green, surrounded by a stone fort, designed for a retreat for the 
women and children. These garrison houses were built in all the 
towns ; one of them may yet be seen in Salem, on Washington street, 
opposite the granite Court House. Two barrels of powder were sent 
to Ipswich from Boston ; a part of it was "sould out to those that 
found muskets," and the remainder stored for use on the great beam 
of the Meeting House. Every night watchmen walked about the 
town, ready at any moment to fire the alarm musket. All males 
from ten ^ars old and upward were drilled by Gen. Denison and 
others ten times a year. The little boys carried half-pikes; at 16 
they joined the adult companies. Every Sunday the men and boys 
brought their muskets to the Meeting House and stacked them before 
the door, while wards paced to and fro during the long service. The 
prayers of the minister were made fervent by the state of affairs. 
Mr. Cobbitt tells of praying when Thomas Kimball, a native of 
Ipswich, was slain at Haverhill, and his wife and babes carried into 
captivity. Guns before the door, powder casks on the great beam, 
and the heads of the wolves that had been killed during the week 
nailed to the lintels, — it must have been ghastly worship ! But 
children of the first generation grew from cradle to middle life familiar 
with these scenes. 

Doors of dwellings were filled with the sharp points of nails and 
spikes. Mr. Thomas Browne, one of our octogenarians, tells me 
when his his father bought the Sargent farm, the old front door of 
the farm-house, (once the home of Dep. Gov. Symonds,) was literally 
filled with spikes. This door had been stored in the garret as a relic. 
There was a bullet hole in it, made one night when a party of Indians 
landed at Castle Hill and went plundering through Argilla. The 
tradition is, that one of them ran and jumped against the door to force 
it open ; bruised by the spikes and annoyed by the gun, they went 
howling away. Mr. Daniel Hodgkins has preserved the old Cobbitt 



44 DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

door, which seems to have been made similar to the Symonds. 
General Court ordered "that at Gov. Symonds' two men should be 
appointed by the major-gen'll [Denison ] or, in his absence by the 
chiefe comander in the towne of Ipswich, to be a guard to the Deputy 
Goun'ors house, that is so remoate from neighbours, and he so much 
necessitated to be on the countrys service." (1675) Mad Symonds' 
son writes from Assingtou, "Your sorrows in New England Are much 
vpon mee, And I have direful Ideas in minde of the frights and 
distractions that these salvages put you too. And my vncle Swaine 
as wel as myselfe Judge you might find some pease in England whilst 
troubles are there: for you cannot fight those Heathens In your 
person otherwise than with prayers and tears, which may be done 
here." 

In the first great horror of 1G37, messengers went from town to 
town with the tidings that the Pequots were devastating Connecticut ; 
that John Oldham, a Boston merchant had been killed, and Capt. 
John Gallup had "fed the bodies of his Indian murderers to the 
fishes." This was no idle tale to Ipswich ears, for the name of Gallup 
was well known in town, as he was allied by marriage to Mistress 
Lake, sister of the Winthrops and Symondses, and mother of Sheriff 
Harris' wife : and when the announcement came that the Colonies 
were to unite their forces for the overthrow oft e tribe, our noble boys 
rose with the rest and hastened to the field. How well they did 
history tells. There is a leaf on our old shattered Record Book, 
written with the quill of William Bartholomew, which gives the 
names of fourteen of the twenty-four who marched away on that 
April morning, and united with the Salem boys under Capt. Trask. 
That yellow leaf is as sacred as the granite shaft on Meeting House 
Hill, and I am not sure but it is quite as enduring. It gives the names 
c f : — Wiliam Fuller, Francis Wainwright, John Wedgewood, Thomas 
Sherman, William Whitred, Andrew Story, John Burnham, Robert 
Cross, Palmer Tingley, William Snyder, Robert Philbrick, John 
Philbrick, John Castell, Edward Luramas, Edward Thomas. Nearly 
every one became a substantial man in town. 

[ wonder if John Norton prayed and Nathaniel Rogers lifted his 
hands in benediction before they left! I wonder if the Ipswich women 
were as brave and strong as Elisabeth (Choate) Farley in 1 770, when 
she buckled the knapsack of her boy Robert,— only sixteen years old, 
— and told him to go and behave like a man ! Nature is the same in 
all generations : the women of 1637 and 1676 simply transmitted their 
true life to fheir children of 1776 and 1861. 

Three of our Ipswich boys, — Wainwright, Wedgewood, Sherman, 
won imperishable records in this exploit. Francis Wainwright, who 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. I ."> 

came to Ipswich as a servant of Alexander Knight, became, — no more 
a servant, — but the head of a house that for a hundred years was the 
most influential of any in town in mercantile affairs. The old people 
of forty years ago told of the obesience the plain people rendered to 
Col. John Wainwright, (son of Francis,) as they passed him on the 
street. Francis Wainwright's story is thus given b}' Vincent: ,l A 
pretty sturdy youth of Ipswich, going forth somewhat rashly to pursue 
the salvages, shot off his gun after them till all his powder was shot 
and spent ; which they perceiving re-assaulted him, thinking with 
their hatchets to have knocked him in the head ; but he so bestirred 
himself with the stock of his piece, and after with the barrel when that 
was broken, that he brought two of their heads to the array. His 
own desert and the encouragment of others will not suffer him to be 
nameless — he is called Francis Wainwright." 

Robert Pike's Diary, says that John Wedgewood and Thomas 
Sherman gave chase to a scout of Indians and drove them to a 
swamp ; both were wounded and came home with scars and the 
satisfaction of having driven back the enemy. Ipswich was not 
ashamed of her sons. 

One September Sunday, in 1G42, the alarm guns were fired, and 
men ran with their muskets to the Meeting house, to learn that the 
Merrimac tribes had risen in conspiracy. Denison marched away with 
forty of our men. It was like the Baltimore Sunday of twenty years 
ago, the very memory of which comes over us now and then like a 
strange dream. In 1643 another alarm was made, and twenty men 
were drafted. In 1653, there came a rumor which produced unusual 
excitement. It was in the Spring, the busy season of the year. Men 
were so filled with fear they could not work ; mothers did not dare let 
their children go beyond their grasp ; every unusual sound caused 
people to hold their breath. Gen. Denison again callad out his men, 
and they marched away to quell the Pascatags. 

So the years dragged till 1676, — when Denison had reached his 
sixty-fourth year. Then came that great ugly throb of the Indian 
heart. Only God saved New England then! Denison gathered up 
his men and marched to Maine. Appleton was made Commander of 
the forces of Central Massachusetts. Brave Appleton ! how he fought. 
He forced his way from town to town ; one day Freegrace Norton, 
[his family lived where Miss Abigail Appleton now resides,] fell 
fatally shot at his side : a bullet went through his own hat ; three 
Ipswich names, and I know not how many more, — John Ayres, John 
Pritchet, Richard Coy,— were left dead on the field. Appleton 
reached Hadley, and without flinching held the town for hours. Then 
followed the fights of Lancaster, Medfield, Marlboro.— every scholar 



46 DENISON MEMOIUAL, ll'SWICH, MASS. 

of our schools has hea:d of them ; and at Marlboro our cousin Rowley 
lo;t her Brocklebank, one of the truest of her sons. 

The Massachusetts troubles so filled the hands of the Court that the 
fury of the Terratines of Maine was more than they could cover with 
their wing ; and they gave Denison the best testimonial of their 
confidence in him he could have received,— they committed the whole 
eastern affair to his sagacity and care. It was an important post ; a 
stretch of towns exposed to Indian attacks, — Casco and Falmouth 
already sacked and ruined ; Arrowsick with a thousand cattle at the 
mercy of the savages ; Wells, (named for an Ipswich boy born near 
the corner of Elm street.) York, Kittery, and so on. The bravery of 
the Maine people was almost fabulous. Hubbard makes the pulse 
quicken by the narrations. One fact we will tell : Fifteen women gath- 
ered in one house aud the savages came ; a young girl stood guard at 
the door, keeping the Indians at bay, till every woman but herself had 
escaped, and then she was felled with a hatchet and left for dead. 
These scenes multiplied every day. General Denison determined to 
strike the lion in his den ; to go into the very forests for their des- 
truction. But God rose to the rescue, and sent such a bitter cold the 
Indians were obliged to yield to escape freezing and starving. 

•It was at this time that Thomas Cobbitt, son of the Minister on the 
hill, was made a captive. At Mr. Cobbitt's house on East street, the 
church gathered and prayed for his liberation and return. One godly 
woman sat in great inward recollection during that hour of prayer, 
receiving the divine conviction that Thomas would come home alive, 
and told his mother so. Notes were read in the Congregations of 
Ministers Phillips, Hale, Higginson, Whiting, Buckley, and the three 
churches of Boston. At this time, Gen. Denison in Maine, met 
Mugg, the Chief, and by wise negotiations obtained the release of 
Cobbitt and ended the war. Denison sent Mugg to Boston in care of 
his brother, Gen. George Denison. On his way he stopped in Ipswich 
and was at the house of Mr. Cobbitt. Curious Ipswich was out, no 
doubt, to see him. What they thought of his Ugliness, I cannot tell. 

Who wonders that after fifty years of such life as this, Denison 
welcomed the hour that opened the Everlasting Doors? Peace to the 
ashes of the good men and women who stood firmly with him when it 
was a living death so to do ! Peace to Denison's dust as it slumbers 
in the quietness of the grave-yard on the hill ! Fresh laurels we lay 
to-night upon the old red slab that covers him, and may those who 
live after us keep his memory green. 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS 47 



GENEALOGICAL. 



Daniel (1) and Patience (Dudley) Denison had two children: 
John 2, who married Martha, daughter of Dep. Gov. Symonds ; and 
Elisabeth who married Rev. John Rogers, Pres Harvard College. 

John 2, and Martha (Symonds) Denison had John 3, who m. Elis- 
abeth, dau. the Hon'ole Nath'l Saltonstall ; Daniel who m. Margaret 
Low ; Martha, m. (1) Thomas, son of Andrew and Anne (Bradstreet) 
Wiggin and gr. son of Gov. Thomas Wiggin. She m. (2)Capt. Jona. 
Thing of Exeter. She m. (3) Matthew Whipple of Ipswich. 

President John and Elisabeth (Denison) Rogers had Elisabeth who 
m. John Appleton ; Margaret who m. (1) Thomas Berry, (2) John 
Leverett, Pres. of H. C. ; John who m Martha Whittingham ; Dau'l 
m. Sarah Appleton ; Nathaniel m. Sarah Perkins; Patience m. Benj. 
Marston. 

John 3, and Elisabeth (Saltonstall) Denison, had John 4, m. Mary 
dau. Pres. John Leverett. 

John 4, and Mary (Leverett) Denison had John who d mini, and 
Mary who m. John Wise. 

Hon John Appleton who m. Elisabeth Rogers, gr. dau. of Gen. 
Denison, had Elisabeth who m. Rev. Jabez Fitch; Margaret who m. 
President Holyoke ; Nathaniel, ordained al Cambridge, 1717, d. 1784; 
Priscillam. Rev. Robert Ward of Wenham ; Daniel m. Elisabeth 
Berry, (he was the father of Mrs. Rev. John W alley of the South 
Church.) 

[The last Rev. John and Rev. Nath'l Rogers, of the North Church, 
were descendants of Gen. Denison.] 



DENTS ON SUBSCRIBERS. 



COPIED BY ARTHUR \V. HOW 



At the generall Towne meeting held 19 of December 1648 : wheras 
the ynhabitants of this Towne haue engaged themselves to pay yearly 
on the 10th day of Decembar vnto maior Denison soe long as he shall 
be there Leader the Summ of twenty four pounds seaven shillings in 
way of gratuitye to encourage him in his military helpfullness unto 
them as by severall subscriptions vnder there bands mav appeare. 



48 



DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 



And because it is most manifest the sayd sum will not be raysed 
nnlesse some better order be taken for the same espeshally in respect 
of the Alteration, and change of the ynhabitants. Yt is therefore 
ordered that henceforth the seaven men shall yearly in November put 
the sd sum of 2i£ 7s into a rate porportioning it vpon the ynhab- 
itants, (haveing alsoe respect to the bill of subscriptions of the Towne 
from year to yeare, to be levyed & colected by the constable and payd 
unto the savd maior Denison on the 10th of December yearly soe long 
as he shall continue to be leader of this companye. 

Voted by the Towne at the generall Towne meeting above men- 
tioned 

A list of the names of those that did subscribe there severall somes 
yearly while he continued to be our Leader: 



Mr. Saltonstall 
Mr. Syinouds 
Mr. Hubbard 
Mr Rogers 
Mr. Norton 
Mr. William Paine 
Mr. Robert Paine 
John Whipple 
ffrancis Dane 
Mr. Baker 
Kich. Kemball, sen'r 
Tho. Roiiusou, sen : r 
Robert Lord 
James How 
Theoph: Willson 
Humph : Bradstreet 
Daniell Clarke 
William Clarke 
Sauiuell Long- 
John Warner 
John VVoodd.im 
James Chute 
John Anaball 
John Davis 
Wm Gutterson 
John Morse 
William Averill 
John Newman 
Roger Langton 
Joseph Langton 
ffrancis Jordan, 
John Jackson 
Abra : fibster 
Phillip Long 
William Bartholomew 
Andrew Hodges 



Steephen Jordan 
Thos. Newman 
John Gage 
Renold fibster 
Matthias Button 
Samuel Tayler 
Thos: Tredwell 
Abra; Warr 
Tho : Knowlton 
Thomas Hardy 
Rcb : Scofield 
Roger Preston 
Robert Beacham 
Tho: Pei kins 
Th.3. Harris 
Robert Dutch 
Jacob Perkins 
Ralph Dix 
John Layton 
John Iugalls 
Robert tilbrick 
Robert Wallis 
Robert Roberds 
ffran. wainwright 
John Newinarsh 
Sam. Heipher 
Joseph Bigsby 
Edward Waldenne 
John Appleton 
Sam : Appleton 
Tho. Stace 
Jo : Whipple, jr. 
Edmond Bridges 
Lanslot Granger 
Anthony Potter 
John trench. 



Nath. Stou 
mark Quilter 
will : Addam \v 
John Denison 
Edw. Lomas 
Tho Rolliuson jr, 
Dunell Warner 
Tho. Wardall 
Tho Scott jr. 
Tho Scott sen'r 
Wm Addams sen'r 
John Binder 
Ihomas Hart 
Robert Day 
Will Pritchet 
John Wiate 
Tho clarke jr 
Tho, Safford 
John Knowlton 
Joseph metcalfe 
Tho. Metcalfe 
Moses Pengry 
Aron Pengiy 
Theo. Shatswell 
Mr. Tuttle 
John Pittice 
Rich: Shatswell 
Rich. Kemball jr 
Wm. Whitred 
Tho: Whitred 
Georg Smith 
Haniell Bosworth. 
Esra Roffe 
Rich. Wattells 
Henry Kingsbury 
Robert Smith 



DENISOM MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, .MASS. I'J 

Henry Areher John Chote Daniel] Wood 

Edward Browne Symon Tompson Joseph Emerson 

John Ayres Kobert Kinsman Robert Cross 

Richard Betts Tho. Low Sam. V on unlove 

John Haskell Will Goodhue Sam. Pod 

Humph. Vincent Wm Story Win Cogswell 

John Uatcham John \\ est Wm LampsoD 

Will Buckley Theo. Salter Anthony Harris 

Sam: Varnam John liurnam Robert Colbome 

Danicll Roffe Will Miller Tin. Bishop 

Joseph Redding George (lidding Iho. Greene 

Richard Nicholls John Andres jr Robert Pearpoyat 

John Browne Tho Lee John ffaller 

John Andrews seu'r John Perkins jr Tho. Burnam 

mata : Clarke Wm ffellows John Lee 

Daniell Hovey Mr. Epps Johu Emerson 

Gyles Birdly Hnmph. Gilbert Job Bishop 

John Dane Daniel! Rinse 



DENIS ON INSCRIPTIONS, HIGH ST. YARD. 



The Grave of Gen. Denison is covered by a heavy red slab. The 
inscription is obliterated but was legible sixty years ago, and is partly 
remembered by aged people. The sculptured ornamental corner is 
just tracable. The Coat-of-Arms has been carried away. The 
inscription was something like the following : 

Here Lyes 

The Worshipful Major-General 

DANIEL DENISON. 

who deceased 

Sept. 20, 10.S-2, 

In ye 70th yr of his age. 



Not far from the grave of Denison is a slate stone in memory 
of his only daughter: — Here Lyes Interred ye Body of Mrs ElizaBeth 
Rogers, Relict of Mr John Rogers, (sometime) Presedent of Harvard 
Colledge, and Daughter of Major General Daniel Denison of Ipswich 
who Deed July the 13th 1723 in ye 82nd year of her age. 

The husband of Mrs. Rogers was buried in Cambridge, and we 
copy the following translation of his Latin epitaph : " To this mouud 
of earth is committed a treasury of benevolence, a store house of 
theologic learning, a library of the choicest literature, a living system 
of medicine, an embodiment of integrity, a repository of faith, a pat- 
tern of christian sympathy, a garner of all virtues ; in other words, — 
the mortal remains of the Very Reverend John Rogers, son of the 



")(> DENISON MEMORIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

Very Learned Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich in New England, grandson 
of Mr. Rogers of Dedham in Cld England, whose name is lustrious in 
all the world. He was a favorite and deservedly admired President 
of Harvard College. His immortal part was borne away from us July 
20th, 1684, in the 54th year of his age. His very dust is dear, 'tis all 
we have." 



A few feet fiom Gen. Denison's grave is a monument to the memo- 
ry of his great-grandson, Col. John Denison : 




1 Huic Tumulo mandatur quod erat mortale 

D Johannis Denison, Armigeri, 

Tribuni Militum Viearii, 

Et de Comitatu Essexia? Viee-comitis, 

lllustrissimi Danielis Denison, Armig. 

Militaris quondam Prrefecti Provincialis, 

Et non minus Illustris Richardi Saltonstal, Armig. 

Gubernatori olim a Consiliis, 

(Quorum utroque gaudebat Nova-Anglia 

Patre ac Patrono semper memorando) 

Pronepotis non Indigni : 

Quippe qui 

In Collegio Harvardino liberaliter educatus, 

Judicii acumine Singulari dotatus, 

Jurisprudentiam non vulgarem adeptus, 

iEquanimitate haud lequiparanda pmcditus, 

Moribus Socialibus el Christianis Pollens, 

Reipublicae Ornamento fuit 

Et Fulcimento, 

Dumque viveret bonis omnibus 

Non immerito dilectus 

Et cum Animam efllaret, 25° Nov. 1724, 

JEi&t. 35° 

Non mediocriter defletus. 

Famam reliquit Unguento optimo meliorem. 



DKNISo.N MEMOHIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. .", I 

Translation . 

Here rests the mortal part of Lieut. Col. Mr. John Denison, Esq., 
Sheriff of Essex County; great-grandson of the most illustrious Daniel 
Denison, Esq., late Major-General in the Province; and also of the 
not less illustrious Richard Saltonstall, Esq., formerly one of the 
Governor's Council, (in each of whom, as in a father and champion 
ever to he remembered, New England used to delight,) a descendant 
not unworthy of his ancestry ; having been liberally educated in 
Harvard College, endowed with extraordinary acuteness of judgment, 
remarkably skilled in jurisdrudence, gifted with unequalled steadiness 
of mind, mighty by his social and christian character, an ornament 
and pillar to the state ; while he lived, deservedly beloved by all good 
men, and at his death, Nov. 25th, 1724, in the 34th year of his a«e, 
lamented in no common degree. He left a memory more precious 
than the most fragrant ointment. 

Mrs. Mary (Leverett) Denison, married (2) the Rev'd Nathaniel 
Rogers, and resided in the house known to the present generation as 
the residence of the late Nath'l Lord, jr., Register of Probate. This 
house was built in 1728. kt Here Lyes ye Body of Mrs. Mary Rogers, 
ye Excellent Consort to ye Rev'd Mr. Nathaniel Rogers, and Daug'r 
of the Hon'bl and Rev'd Mr. John Leverett Esq., who died June ye 
25th, 1757, iEtatis 55." 

By the side of Col, John Denison, resls his only son, who was the 
last of the Major-General's descendants in Ipswich, who bore the 
surname — Denison. His gravestone bears the Family Arms, and 
the following: " In Memory of John Denison, A. M. only son of Col. 
John Denison : grandson of a Minister of the same name & a descend- 
ant from the renowned Major General Daniel Denison. An amiable 
young man & worthy of his ancestors. His genius learning & en- 
gaging manners spoke him the future joy & ornament of his native 
town. But heaven meant otherwise. He died in his 25th year on 
the 25th of August, 1747. He cometh forth like a flower & is cut 
down. He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. 



DENISON MEMOBIAL, IPSWICH, MASS. 

RE CORDS. 



1635. Their was Granted to Mr- Daniell Denison one Hundred 
& fifty Acres of Land at Chebacco haueing the Creek called Labour in 
Vayne on the north west, Mr. Samvele Dudlye land on the south east, 
Mr. John Winthroppe, Junr, on the south west, & Mr. Wards land 
on the North east. 

Likewise their was Granted to him ten Acres of meadow haueing 
the labour ^in vayne Creeke on the south east, Mr. Richard Saltonstall 
land on the south west, & Robert Andrewes land towards the Noeast. 

Also about fouracres lying vppon hart breake hill, haueing Good- 
man perlyes lott on the east, William Fullers on the west, A Swamp 
on the north and a high way to Chebacco on ye south. 

Also house lott near the mill containeing about two acres wch he 
hath paled in and built an house vppon it, haueing mr. ffawne's house 
lott on ye south west. 

Also three Acres lyinge vppon the Towne River aboue the mill, 
haueing the Riuer on the south east and lott of Mr. ^.ppleton's on the 
north east. 

Also their was Granted him ten Acres of vpland on the North west 
side of the towne, Butting vppon the path that goes to Newbery being 
on the north west side of the swamp that Jo3 T nes to Mr. Simon 
Bradstreets to enjoy the said premises to him his heires admi'sr or 
Assignes forever. 

11 Jan. 1639. Granted to mr. fawne a house lott adjoyneing to 
mr. Appleton six acre near ye mill. Granted to Daniell Denison a 
house lott next mr. fawnes to the scirt of the hill next the swamp. 

1630. Att a Generall meeting february 26th, 1636, Mr. Denison 
is chosen to keepe the Towne Books to enter all grants of land to 
pticaler psons for which he shall hauve 6cl for every man's Land he so 
enters, also he is to enter the Towne orders and to sett a coppy 
thereof up in ye meeting house. 

Mr John Winthrope, Mr. Bradstreete, mr. Denison, goodman 
perkins, Goodman Scott, John Gage and mr. Wade are chosen to 
order Towne Business for these three months next following. 



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